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Monday, October 15, 2012

Transportation / Panic Yet Another Reason Why I Hate the Airline Industry

Posted by Goldy on Mon, Oct 15, 2012 at 8:20 AM

Anchorage's Ted Stevens International Airport was shut down for three hours early Sunday morning, leaving evacuated travelers shivering outside in the cold, all because soon to be jobless hockey referee Peter Friesema of Colorado made an awkward, stupid joke:

"But my friend's bag has a bomb in it," the agent remembers him saying, according to a charging document. He recounted it to authorities slightly differently, more to the effect of "what if my friend's bag has a bomb in it?"

And so poor Mr. Friesema found himself in shackles, standing before a judge, potentially facing felony terrorism charge. And even though the FBI has determined the threat was not credible, the judge found Friesema to be a flight risk, and ordered him not to leave Alaska, likely costing him his job.

Yeah, sure, it was a stupid thing to say, particularly in this era when the flight crew or security personnel can have you arrested simply for looking at them funny, but JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, DOESN'T ANYBODY HAVE ANY COMMON SENSE ANYMORE?! Give the the guy a stern talking to, or possibly a citation if you have to, but shutting down the airport and sending him to jail for saying something that, stupid as it may have been, clearly wasn't intended as a threat?

Somewhere in Hell, Osama bin Laden is having a good laugh right about now.

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So, is this really the airline industry's fault? Sounds more like the government's. I doubt all those airlines enjoyed incurring the costs of parking planes that should have been in the air.

Posted by Matt from Denver on October 15, 2012 at 8:28 AM

There is no such thing as "common sense".

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-…

Posted by Revenge! on October 15, 2012 at 8:32 AM

Actually, I don't know how those costs are paid. It could be that the government compensates the airlines when this happens. Even so, the ripple effect of flight delays and cancellations (even if it's minimal, as it would be, coming from a minor airport) is probably not something they would bring about on their own.

Posted by Matt from Denver on October 15, 2012 at 8:34 AM

There are a lot of good reasons to hate the airline industry, using bankruptcy laws to break union contracts is one of the best, but this is less the airline industry than the TSA, I suspect that airline employees are required to report any "threat" credible or not, and that law enforcement and prosecutors offices are instructed to take a "zero tolerance" approach to any incident at an airport.

This is a result a a society with almost no critical thinking skills, which by the way is one more thing to thank the right wing for...

Posted by Merchant Seaman on October 15, 2012 at 8:38 AM

I do not think the average intelligence of a TSA member allows for the government to trust them to make judgment calls. Why we hire the worst and the dimmest to ensure public safety, I will never understand.

So there can be no common sense, since common sense is not written into the book they follow.

Posted by Theodore Gorath on October 15, 2012 at 8:38 AM

Right-wing fuckheads HATE the TSA
Left-wing limp-wristers HATE the TSA

What the hell is the problem here, something we all agree on!

Is this a fucking democracy, of-by-and-for the people, or WHAT?

Oh... don't answer that.

Posted by Karlheinz Arschbomber

on October 15, 2012 at 8:47 AM

@5 & @6 Connected individuals make a lot of money staffing the TSA.
Remember, it was a question of patriotism to make Homeland Security a non-union industry.

Posted by Sir Vic on October 15, 2012 at 8:53 AM

Terrorism: noun

1. the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes.

We refer to events like this as the post 9/11 world. You know, the day we allowed terrorism to work and change how we run our country.

Posted by Pick1 on October 15, 2012 at 9:05 AM

One last thing: Joking about bombs at airports has been cause for detention by airport security for decades. This wasn't something that came along with the creation of the TSA. I don't believe it resulted in shutting down concourses or entire airports before 9/11, but it's still something that was always taken with grave seriousness - as it ought to be. If anyone lacked sense ("common" or otherwise), it's the twerp who made the crack in the first place.

Posted by Matt from Denver on October 15, 2012 at 9:59 AM

@9 Yep, that was stupid, but like you said, pre-9/11 it never would've shut down the airport to this extent. Especially since the threat was deemed "non-credible" from the get go.

Posted by Pick1 on October 15, 2012 at 11:17 AM

I don't know what it is but the TSA at Ted Stevens International is particularly staffed with mentally unstable Teenaged SS Goon Squad wanna-be's. I go fishing up there. And every time I go up there is some sort of ridiculous kerfuffle over nothing. And it's not even that busy.

One year there was some team of IDF security consultants "monitoring" the TSA teen-agents. The irony of their Gestapo'd up demeanor was clearly lost on them. They, I shit you not, yelled at passengers: "You don't know what REAL terrorism is! You don't know what real security is!"

My 82 year old father finally snapped "Oh yeah well, you don't what a real war is! The one I fought in lasted a fuck load longer than six days!"

Guess who got "special attention."

Posted by tkc on October 15, 2012 at 12:12 PM

Wow, a 3-hour airport delay. Did anyone resort to cannibalism?

Posted by slake on October 15, 2012 at 12:20 PM

What the TSA did to that poor dying woman at SeaTac, and now refuses to make public the video of the scene, is unconscionable. THAT is a good example of what's wrong with the TSA.

The guy up in AK? Just a low IQ asshole who thought he'd be clever and couldn't keep his trap shut. This one's on him.

Posted by Westside forever on October 15, 2012 at 12:27 PM

What I find most surprising is that Alaska has an airport still named after Ted Stevens. The word "idiotic" was already a typical prefix to his name (though apparently only outside AK), even before he rightfully earned "disgraced" and "crooked".

Posted by Knat on October 15, 2012 at 6:08 PM