Traveler forced to pop the question in airport security line

by Jeffrey White on

If you need further evidence that airport security is getting out of control, it now seems that you cannot even get ring boxes past screeners these days.

The Associated Press reports that a Canadian man who planned on proposing to his girlfriend on a Caribbean cruise had to make a quick change when an airport security worker in Prince George, British Columbia found his engagement ring in his carry-on.

Aaron Tkachuk was carrying a white gold, diamond and ruby ring in a small box hidden in the toe of a sock. That looked a little fishy on X-ray, so security wanted a closer look. Not satisfied that the velvet box was harmless, the agent opened it, outing Tkachuk’s intentions right there in front of his 24-year-old high school sweatheart.

What did Tkachuk do? He popped the question right there on the spot, and his girlfriend, Jennifer Rubadeau, said yes. Security clapped.

Seems like we’ve had a few incidences lately about airport security officers making stupid judgment calls. But hey, at least Tkachuk and his fiancé now have a unique engagement story to tell. Let’s face it, proposing on a Caribbean cruise is so cliché.

First possible blizzard since 1996 is gumming up Ohio

by Jamie Rhein on

Catherine mentioned in her latest Gadling Take 5 post that it’s breaking up in Alaska where she lives. It’s socking in in Ohio. This is the first blizzard warning we’ve had in central Ohio for years. Streets are a real mess–so is Port Columbus International Airport. I just heard an interview with someone who is waiting at the airport for a friend to arrive. The friend’s airplane did arrive but the plane couldn’t land until the runway was clear. Since it didn’t have enough gas to keep circling the airport, it went onto Detroit to refuel and will be back. Flights out are getting canceled. I hope her friend likes Detroit.

We don’t get much snow here so people can be a bit reactionary when snow flies. Folks have flocked to the grocery store to stock up on food. It’s like people go into Little House on the Prairie mode thinking that they’re stocking up for months of hard times. From what I’ve heard, it’s going to quit snowing by tomorrow afternoon. If we didn’t buy food for a week, at my house, we’d still be able to find something to eat–shriveled potatoes, perhaps. I’m wondering, though, if I should have headed to the grocery store for loaves of bread and milk, the most popular items, according to the news. The hording tendency is catching.

These are the days that remind folks that no matter how much you plan, it just might not work out. You could end up in Detroit. Not that there’s anything wrong with Detroit, but only if that’s where you planned to head in the first place. Or-you could be stuck in Columbus.

Airport security: TSA endangers sick teen’s life

by Jeffrey White on

An ill Orlando teenager was thwarted in the screening line of Orlando International Airport a few weeks ago, when security workers for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) insisted on inspecting a back-up feeding tube he carries with him in a sealed, clear sterilized plastic bag.

James Hoyne, 14, has a feeding tube in his stomach and always has a second one in reserve, if he needs it. Orlando television station WFTV reports that a TSA officer opened the back-up tube to inspect it, over the teen’s objections, thus contaminating the feeding tube that Hoyne said he turned out to later need.

Hoyne recounted his conversation with the screener for WFTV: “I said, ‘Please don’t open it’ and she said, ‘I have to open it whether you like it or not. If I can’t open it, I can’t let you on the plane’.”

The television station reports that the TSA has apologized to the boy and is opening an investigation as to what could have been done to avoid the incident.

The gut answer, of course: use common sense. But in reality, the screener, no matter how nonsensical, was doing her job.

Still, it would seem that even if the screener had the most rudimentary understanding of the TSA’s list of prohibited items, it would have been easy for her to conclude that the boy’s spare feeding tube — sans liquid, mind you — certainly qualified for acceptance under the TSA’s allowed “special needs devices,” or, as the administration says, “Items used to augment the body for medical or cosmetic reasons.”

But security officers are, if nothing else, a very literal lot. Theirs is not the business of judgment calls. I’m guessing the TSA will now need to go in and specifically put ‘feeding tubes’ on the approved list to prevent such an incident from happening again.

Have you had any run-ins with the TSA lately? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Even more TSA fun:

What strange things have been found on planes?


Click the image to read the bizarre story…

New ‘Zip Lane’ debuts at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, California

by Jeffrey White on

The Transportation Security Administration is making a big fuss over its new Zip Lane screening line, which made its national debut yesterday in a trial run at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, California.

Now, I’m one of those who never considered Bob Hope that funny. But this Zip Lane has the makings of being a gut-buster. It’s essentially an express lane for business travelers carting one very small bag, i.e. a brief case. The lane is open from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., — peak business travel time.

A TSA spokesman told KABC TV in Burbank that since there will be less bags for screeners to check, the line will move twice as fast as regular security. Uh-huh. I’ve traveled at those peak business times, and seen many corporate types with only a laptop bag in the regular lines. In fact, seldom do the regular lines move faster than early in the morning. So, the TSA is banking on less baggage to screen at times when there often is…less baggage to screen.

Still, the Zip Lane does not eliminate the procedures that really slow down lines: Shoes, belts and jackets still need to come off. Laptops still need to be pulled out.

Not surprisingly, few interviewed on KABC TV yesterday found much to praise about the express lane. “Well, so far it’s not very express,” one traveler, Dorothy Johnson, told the channel. “I’ve been waiting in line about half an hour.”

The TSA response? “When you’re talking a 15 minute wait at the security checkpoint and you save somebody five minutes, that’s a third of the time they don’t have to wait at the security checkpoint,” a spokesman told the channel.

Security officials admit the Zip Lane is not perfect, and they will be ironing out bugs in the coming months. But the TSA hopes that if it proves successful, express lanes can begin popping up at airports across the country.

But I have my doubts. I mean, how good a litmus test is Bob Hope Airport in Burbank? Let’s see them test this sucker at O’Hare.

To summarize getting to and from London…

by Iva Skoch on

…I would default to the much overused Mastercard lingo:

Airticket from London to Prague: $100

Taxi to the airport: $250

Leaving for the airport early enough to take the train next time: priceless. (Well, not completely priceless, but about $230 cheaper than taking a cab.)

The good part is that I actually made the flight with two minutes to spare. The bad part is that it would have been cheaper to just miss the flight and buy an new air ticket.

Can you believe it actually costs twice as much to fly internationally as it does to take a cab from the center of London to Stansted airport?