Fun Times At Airport Security
I don’t remember where I read it (I think it was one of the aviation blogs in my RSS aggregator) but someone recently wondered if Canadians are too nice. I tend to think we are. I like that we aren’t skeptical of everyone or everything (ask me about the time I tried filling up my car in Palm Springs at 4am) but I think that we are learning far too much towards ’nice’. And yesterday at the security checkpoint at Calgary’s International Airport is a classic example.
Apparently Thursday afternoons are the worst day to travel in Calgary. There were a couple of charter flights leaving along wih the regular scheduled flights so the security line at Gate C was huge. The line was so long that despite having all the x-ray machines going, the line went out the door, into the terminal and as far back as the Virgin store. On a side note, the long lineup worked out well as Ali got a chance to purchase some chocolates for the trip (which would have cost $400 dollars or something outrageously stupid like that on CanJet) and I got to see that the Virgin store’s videos were provided by PromoOnly.
Finally, after what seemed an eternity, we got into the one of the security x-ray lines. Unfortunately for us, we were stuck behind a potential terrorist. Seriously. If we had been in the United States this guy would have been dropped to the ground and put in jail, at least overnight. How came I be so certain? Because he had a bullet in his carry on luggage. No, not a slug or a casing, but a real, live round, ready to be fired from a hand gun. What did security do? Did they detain him? Take him aside and take him out? Was the airport detail of CPS or RCMP called? No, no, and no. Instead, they nicely told him he couldn’t take a bullet with him. And to add insult to injury, he argued with them. Seriously.
Okay, so probably this guy likes handguns and is a club member and forgot that he had some ammo left over from his last trip to the cabin. Or maybe not. regardless of the circumstance, don’t you think it warrants further investigation? Especially if the guy starts arguing with security. Only a moron or a fanatic (I hate fanatics) would argue with authorities after being caught trying to smuggle a bullet on a plane. In any case, I think that we are far too nice. And I made sure as we dashed to catch our plane at Gate C42 that that crazy guy with the bullet wasn’t on our flight.
Fri, 10 Jun 2005 21:34 Posted in General
