U.S. airline pilots will be exempted from physical checks at airport security checkpoints

TSA Chief Says Airline Pilots to Get Faster Screening

U.S. airline pilots will be exempted from physical checks at airport security checkpoints so federal screeners can better focus on passengers, the Transportation Security Administration chief said.

Pilots starting next year will be able to move through checkpoints with proof of identity, said John Pistole, who leads the agency, in an interview today at Bloomberg’s office in Washington. He said he is in talks with flight attendants about similar exemptions.

“This one seemed to jump out as a common-sense issue,” Pistole said. “Why don’t we trust pilots who are literally in charge of the aircraft?”

bloomberg.com

So next year, U.S Airline Pilots will no longer be subjected to the scanners. A win for the Pilots. I just don't want to hear any new's article claiming a terrorist, somehow managed to attain a job as a airline pilot to cause harm. Would not be good at all.

reply to post by Oozii


It would be kind of usless to screen them anyway, seeing as how they are allowed to carry a firearm on board.

reply to post by craig732


Or seeing as how they pilot the plane and if they wanted to do harm to everyone could just point the plane down.

wow they are really stretching on this one. do you know how much money there is in drug trafficking? hmmm. a sane pilot may have no incentive to take his own plane down, but that same sane pilot may end up with great incentive to commit easy, victimless crimes for lots of $$$. if i remember correctly, they don't get paid very well. what happened is pilots no longer have incentive to help us get rid of these disgusting scanners and sexually invasive pat-downs.

we just lost our reinforcements in this particular battle for personal freedom.

reply to post by iNTERPLANETARyR.O.M.E.O.


Airline pilots routinely make an average of 80k on up, with senior pilots making a nice chunk of change. Keep in mind FAA regulations also restrict the number of hours pilots / copilots can fly before being "grounded" to reset their time frame.

Source
Popular Employers Salary Range

Delta Air Lines Inc $56,000 - $186,118
United Airlines, Inc. $118,644 - $158,272
Southwest Airlines Co $60,000 - $160,842
American Airlines $76,291 - $165,083
Continental Airlines, Inc $69,216 - $181,224

Number of hours they fly each month:
Commercial Airline Pilots can not fly any more than 100 hours in a month, no more than 30 hours of flying during a 7 day period, and no more than 8 hours of flight time in a day.


As someone else pointed out, making Pilots go through a security glow and grope is pointless, as the pilot can just crash the plane (as what possibly occured with Egypt Air Flight 990 that crashed over the Atlanitc Ocean).

As far as the argument goes about it being a 4th amendment violation. People have the choice not to fly, as their is no real expectation of Privacy in Public. A patdown / Frisk, the same type the TSA is using, is not considered a search under Supreme Court Rulings. In actuality the manner in which the patdowns / frisks are being conducted (with a few exceptions) is the same technique Law Enforcement around the world uses. Also, to the best of my knowledge TSA screeners are not comissioned Law Enforcement for the state they work in, nor the Federal Agency they work for, which means their are differing standards as to what they are allowed to do since they are not operating under color of law (42 USC 1983 for those intrested).

The best comparison I can come up with is your drivers license. While travel is a contitutionally protected right, the manner in which you travel is not (think shoe leather express).

Now with that being said, how do we fix the problem, which is screening passengers in such a manner that protects the people flying, while at the same time protecting the rights of people who chose to fly?

The slippery slope we are on now (personally I think we stepped off a while back and are slowly gaining speed on our way down) does nothing but guarantee a win for terrorism, since they accomplished their goal of moving a free society into a police state. While we are not under Sharia law, we are quickly moving towards that style of arbitrary decisions by a few under the guise of protecting the people.

I would be pissed if I got on an airplane and it blew up. I would be pissed to have to undergo the glow and grope as well.

Whats the middle ground solution? Placing armed uniformed officers on every flight? All this does is give any terrorist who made it on board their first target before their next move.

reply to post by Xcathdra


thanks for the info on pilot salaries, very enlightening! in answer to your other points, i think it is the fact that these "pat-downs" are not considered searches is what we are all so upset about. you compared it to a drivers license, but i believe that is inaccurate in that i do not have to submit to what basically amounts to a strip search in order to get a drivers license or a car for that matter. or a gun, knife, potentially explosive material etc. etc. etc.

reply to post by iNTERPLANETARyR.O.M.E.O.


Actually what I was refering to with regards to the License is the fact that driving a vehicle is a privelage and not a right. All the Constitution guarantess is freedom of movement within a state, as well as from state t state. If you want to drive instead of walk, you have to get a driver's license. The license carries with it something called implied consent.

It means if you are lawfully stopped for DWI, you must submit to a breathalyzer / datamaser. You can refuse, but your license is revoked on the spot.

Flying is going to be the same way. Its also a privelage and in order to fly, they want people to submit a screening in order to board the plane. You can refuse, which means shoe leather express becomes an aoption, but not a very pleasent one.

Don't get me wrong, I think the TSA is going overboard, but whats the fix to the problem? Failure to screen has had catastrophic results in the past. The metal detectors worked for a little while, until criminals caught up with the technology, using plastics that are not detected by metal detector.

How do you keep people safe while at the same time not violating the person.