TSA stuff
The TSA doesn’t have enough sense to realize that roughly half of travelers may be women. And since their policy dictates that only women can search women*, a traveling woman was told she could not fly.
* Do they make sure their employees are not gay? If not, I’m guessing that’s not 100% effective.
February 14th, 2012 at 12:11 pm
From the TSA’s statement (not sure if accurate) it looks like they had already ended boarding so she may have just missed her flight because she was late.
February 14th, 2012 at 1:11 pm
Yes, Mike, the story is definitely complicated by the facts – she was very late for her flight, the airline had already notified TSA they were no longer boarding, so TSA sent the female agent away(home, elsewhere? – they don’t say). The fact that they wouldn’t accept her offer of a written release to have a male frisk her doesn’t speak well of their flexibility, however.
February 14th, 2012 at 3:48 pm
It’s been a couple of years since I’ve flown anywhere, but since when does any airline stop boarding 35 minutes ahead of departure? Hell, from my experience, you’re lucky to have even started boarding at that point. Of course, we only have her side of the story with regards to the time of her arrival, since the TSA statement didn’t specifically address it.
February 14th, 2012 at 5:45 pm
We also have only the TSA’s word that the airline had stopped boarding. I’d like to see confirmation from the airline, or an independent source.
February 14th, 2012 at 8:11 pm
Actually, I’d prefer to be frisked by a female person, but not the kind of female person one generally sees wearing a uniform and badge.