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Crew Security Checks
Cheap Charlie · February 6, 2002

Over the past four-and-a-half months I have been flying across the country from East to West and North to South. I've flown north to Canada as well as across the Atlantic and through Europe several times. I'm always on the alert for changes in security wherever they're found.

One scenario that I have seen repeatedly in airports in the United States has been the vigorous searching of flight crews - captains, first officers, pursers and flight attendants alike - as they pass through security on their way to do their jobs. This amazes me.

I have already noted that I was amazed at the waste of time security personnel spend checking geriatric men and women, so feeble they need assistance to make their way down the Jetway. It has been explained to me that, unfortunately, their names came up in a random computer listing.

OK. I'll buy that, as much as I disagree with it and as stupid as I feel the directive may be, as a way to prove that we aren't "profiling." Heaven forbid.

What about the crews? What about captains, first officers, engineers, pursers and flight attendants? It seems they are all being treated exactly the same as the randomly selected passengers. Not as full partners in the fight against terrorism.

I discussed this with a pilot who almost had his manicure kit confiscated (until he took it back to the crew room and stashed it until he returned). I have watched security personnel go through a first officer's bag with a fine-tooth comb and gleefully come out with a nail clipper. Alas, the file had already been broken off.

With a security line snaking through the airport concourse, waiting behind a flight attendant, I had to wait while they had the attendant take off her shoes, then have her bag searched and then have a "pat down."

Aren't these the very people these searches were instituted to protect?

Immediately post-9/11, nail clippers and manicure sets were being confiscated in order to protect the very flight crews security personnel are now searching. The only reason shoes are being so closely monitored is because of the quick action of flight attendants on a transatlantic flight.

We are all waiting long enough at these security checkpoints. Enough is enough.

Worse, this is counterproductive to making passengers feel safer. If the FAA and the Transportation Security Administration want to make passengers feel "safe," frisking the crews who are supposed to be their final line of defense in an emergency is downright foolish.

Even more unbelievable - all the while, in the full view of the same passengers watching their flight crew standing spread-eagle subjected to intense searches, airport security personnel, maintenance personnel, cleaning crews, newspaper delivery men and food service personnel are walking virtually unchecked (and certainly unfrisked) past security points.

Almost every airport employee can bypass the embarrassment and delay of near-cavity searches by flashing a badge and/or opening doors into secure areas with pass keys and coded entry cards.

It's time that the airport security Pooh-Bahs begin treating flight crews with the same respect that they accord ground crews, baggage handlers and sanitation engineers.

After all, flight crews are the very ones who, in the final analysis, put their lives on the line every time their aircraft takes off.

Knowing that the security administration considers flight crews as fully trusted, intimately integrated and deeply appreciated partners in the fight against terrorism, rather than a possibly random part of the problem, would make me feel far more secure.

***

A fundraiser for the families of American Airlines and United Airlines crew members killed on four separate flights on Sept. 11 will be held on March 11, 2002, at the Metropolitan Pavilion, 125 West 18th Street.

Sponsor of the fundraiser is Wings Foundation, c/o Nancy Frawley, 405 West 23rd Street, Suite 12G, New York, NY 10011. The founders and staff members of Americans Are United are current crew members of both American and United airlines.

This important event will feature a live auction for an all-inclusive date with an American or United crewmember, as well as another all-inclusive date with a New York City firefighter or police officer.

Admission also includes a four-hour open bar, hors d'oeuvres, and live entertainment. In addition to the live auction, there will also be a silent auction on a variety of items and services including a guitar autographed by Hootie and the Blowfish, baseballs by Joe Torre and a tennis racquet by Andre Agassi.

Where: Metropolitan Pavilion 125 West 18th Street, New York, NY 10011

When: March 11, 2002 6:00 - 10:00 p.m.

Cost: $50 for prepaid tickets/$65 at the door For tickets send a check to Nancy Frawley at the above address. Checks payable to Wings Foundation.

For further information, contact: Merrill Mazuer at (212) 986-1650.

Charlie Leocha is the Boston-based author of Travel Rights: Know the Rules of the Road and the Air Before You Go. Cheap Charlie appears every Monday on this site. E-mail him at leocha@aol.com or access his Web site.