Ten crazy videos and photos from the airport security checkpoint

by Scott Carmichael on

To most people, the airport checkpoint is where we line up, get partially undressed, and attempt to get through as quickly as possible, without incident or drama.

To others, the checkpoint is an opportunity to make a point, show off or get in trouble. We’ve collected ten funny photos and videos from the security checkpoint that’ll make you want to get through it even faster next time you fly.

From a half naked lady with a poodle to a man who picks the X-ray machine instead of the metal detector, these are some of the funniest clips we could find!

Not entirely sure what the context of this video is, but it appears to be genuine. In the video, a young girl seems to be setting off the metal detector, and decides that walking through it in her underwear is the only way to stop it beeping.

This is someone who wants to make a point – she clearly doesn’t appreciate the lack of privacy at the checkpoint, so walks through in her bikini.

This was a huge viral hit last year, and shows 52 year old Tammy Banovac passing through the checkpoint in her underwear with her poodle on her lap. She did this because she had experienced a nasty search in the past and had “nothing to hide”.

This one showed up in Twitter earlier this year when a local TV station tweeted the photo asking for more information on the man in his underpants.

Another speedo guy walking through the checkpoint. Yeah – not everyone can get away with this.

Check out this guy at a Las Vegas security checkpoint getting the full pat-down. The Marvin Gaye music only makes it better. If this were a movie, the TSA would have made it a PG13.

Partially naked Germans protest invasive security scanners. I think they could have made their point without getting naked, but that probably would not have made it on to YouTube.

“Crazy man in X-Ray machine” – clearly not happy with setting off the metal detector, this guy pops himself right inside the X-ray machine…

And what it actually looks like when you go through the X-ray machine…

And finally, here is a golden oldie from Australia – a TV commercial for mens underwear.

Baggage Scanning Technology Evolving

by Chris Owen on

The latest in baggage scanning technology looks kind of like the CT scanner hospitals use to to look inside the human body much like a loaf of bread, one slice at a time. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials hope this new tool will do a better, faster job detecting explosives in baggage.

The Explosives Detection Systems (EDS) machine runs with CT scan technology, modified to detect explosives in baggage and taking the place of TSA agents manually swabbing each bag. Fully-automated, the machine can scan at the rate of 240 bags an hour. TSA has installed 455 of the machines in airports since January.
Rather than multiple 2D images in traditional x-ray scanners, this new generation CT-like scanner displays dynamic images using a baggage scanning technology called Array Motion Imaging (AMI). AMI presents a moving image of baggage to the machine operator, as though someone were turning it around from side to side or up and down, enabling them to see all areas of the bag.

In the past, careful packing might have allowed prohibited items in baggage to pass by TSA machine operators not “seeing” them. This scanning technology lowers the odds of that happening substantially with new, multiple views as baggage passes though the system.

“It can be deployed anywhere,” said Jeffrey Allison, TSA acting federal security director told thenewsstar.com. “It is portable and can be moved from one location to another. It is a great service for the passengers and it reduces the number of false-type alarms.”

Built by Reveal Imaging, the $340,000 EDS machines are being paid for with funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestmant Act of 2009, a $30 million fund earmarked to improve airport security across the nation in all areas.

TSA began using advanced imaging in 2007. An evolving program, imaging can detect a wide range of threats to security in a matter of seconds to protect the flying public. Imaging is an integral part of TSA’s effort to continually look for new technologies that help ensure travel remain safe and a step ahead of evolving threats.

The TSA imaging program encompasses more than just baggage, it also includes the “scanning” of people as well. Too big to fit through a machine, human beings are handled differently, using a a variety of non-invasive methods that are preferred over unpopular pat-downs.

Since imaging technology has been deployed at airports, over 99 percent of passengers choose to be screened by this technology over alternative screening procedures. According to a CBS poll, 4 out of 5 Americans support the use of advanced imaging at airports nationwide.

Additionally, passengers with joint replacements or other medical devices that would regularly alarm a metal detector often prefer this technology because it is quicker and less invasive than a pat down.

“We are always looking for new technology and procedures that will both enhance security while strengthening privacy protections,” TSA Administrator John Pistole said.

Reveal Imaging photo

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Delta airlines puts elderly woman on wrong flight due to boarding pass mix-up

by Laurel Miller on

In a Top 10 of phone calls you probably don’t want to receive from an airport official: “Your grandmother was found in baggage claim.”

Eighty-year-old Nefissa Yesuf’s Sunday Atlanta to Dulles flight didn’t go quite as planned. CNN reports that airline and airport staff failed to notice that a Delta employee had allegedly given her someone else’s boarding pass by mistake. Yesuf, who is from Ethiopia and doesn’t speak English, instead ending up landing in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Yusef’s granddaughter, Melika Adem, says she received a call from the airport telling her Yusef had been found in baggage claim, crying. According to Adem, Delta gave her grandmother someone else’s ticket, and an airline employee then wheeled her through security, where no one caught the snafu. Adem also states that the name on Yusef’s boarding pass wasn’t even “close” to her grandmother’s. Fortunately, the two women were reunited Sunday evening.

The incident is under investigation by both Delta and the TSA. TSA officers are required to match boarding passes with a passenger’s driver’s license, passport, or other photo identification. Says TSA representative Greg Soule,”Every day TSA screens nearly two million passengers and utilizes many layers of security to keep our nation’s transportation systems secure,” he said. “Every passenger passes through multiple layers of security to include thorough screening at the checkpoint.”

[Photo credit: Flickr user kappuru]

Easy Luggage handling program for cruise passengers

by Chris Owen on

One of the great benefits of a cruise vacation is only having to unpack one time as your floating hotel goes from port to port, a big advantage over land vacations. But the cruise eventually comes to an end and we have to pack up and go hone. A relatively new service makes that whole process much easier.

The normal procedure for luggage handling at the end of a cruise has a lot of steps. Leave it out in the hallway the night before disembarkation, get off the ship in the morning, wade through a sea of luggage with everyone else, claim yours, head to the airport, check your luggage again then claim it one more time at their home airport. That’s just the way it’s been done for years.

The procedure has so many steps that passengers often choose a “self-assist” option where they carry their on luggage on and off the ship, bypassing some of the handling.

But now there is a better way and it gets you airline boarding passes too.

Airportbags.com has a new service that allows guests to skip all that, set their luggage out the night before disembarkation then never touch them again until they get to their home airport. Airportbags.com has partnered with cruise lines, airlines and government security forces to make it all happen and the cost is reasonable.

Onboard Airline Check-In Program from Airports Bags on Vimeo.

You now have the opportunity to complete the airline and luggage check-in process for your flight home before you even step foot off the ship. Simply complete an enrollment form while onboard the ship and return it to a staff member. The night before disembarkation your airline boarding passes and preliminary baggage tags will be delivered to your stateroom along with detailed instructions on how to proceed once departing the ship.

Ricardo Torres of AirportBags told Gadling “This disembarkation option allows you to enjoy your final hours in the port at your leisure. Imagine your options: 1) enjoy the sights of the city or 2) stand in a never-ending line at the airport–the choice is yours with Onboard Airline Check-In. “

I did a version of this coming off a Princess Cruises Alaska Cruisetour last year where we had to go through customs in Vancouver too. In that case we transferred from the ship to the airport on a sealed bus that followed a sealed truck with our luggage in it. Their version is called EasyCheck and it was simply wonderful.

Most major cruise lines have a version of it too. Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises call it the Luggage Valet and Onboard Airline Check in plan. Disney Cruise Line’s version is the Onboard Airline Check-in Service. On Norwegian Cruise Lines it’s simply Bags and Holland America Line calls it Luggage Direct while for Carnival Cruise Lines the program goes under the name of Luggage Express. Prices vary by line but range from free on Disney Cruise Line to $20 on pretty much all the others.

Flickr photo by quinn.anya


Make a statement at the TSA checkpoint with metal-ink undies

by Grant Martin on

Tired of all of this business with patdowns, nude-o-scopes and grope-a-thons at the security checkpoint? Want to make a statement? Don’t want to strip down to your speedo to make that statement? Well then metal ink undergarments might be in your future.

Over at cargocollective.com, a series of undergarments are now on sale that use metal ink to print in their silk screening process. The ink looks and feels the same way that traditional materials do, but under an x-ray — well, they light up like a Christmas tree. This means that anyone viewing the passenger subjected to backscatter x-rays will see the metallic printing stand out.

In this case, that message is the fourth amendment, the part of the bill of rights “which guards against unreasonable searches and seizures when the searched party has a ‘reasonable expectation of privacy’.”

A great way to make a statement? Definitely. Will they prevent your special parts from being seen by the x-ray? Absolutely not. But it’s a clever trick. Among the site’s offerings are t-shirts, socks and other undergarments ranging in price from $19 to $45.

[Via Erin Drewitz]