While we were vacationing in Vienna, Austria over the Christmas holiday there was a terrorist attempt to bring down a plane flying from Amsterdam to Detroit. We read about the event in the local newspapers and heard about it on television channels in Vienna. At the time, we did not know how it would affect our return travel.
With a departure from Vienna to Washington’s Dulles International airport scheduled for 10:50AM on December 27th, we arrive as requested for international flights, two hours before flight time. In fact, we arrived at the airport at 8:30AM.
As we were getting our boarding passes, the ticket counter agent told us to go right to the gate as our flight was boarding. I thought I must have misunderstood so I said: we are on the 10:50AM flight. She responded in the affirmative and repeated her instructions.
So with over two hours before flight time, we approached the gate area. When we saw the lineup of security officials we began to understand that security was now beefed up for flights to America. I would say there were over twice as many people manning the gate. In addition, three dogs assisted them and had their own handlers.
Passengers were told that while typically you could carry on one piece of luggage and one other item, you could only take one thing on the plane. So people had to check additional items at the gate. Everyone’s luggage was opened and examined closely.
Body searches and pat downs were extensive. Both male and female agents were on hand and their hands went everywhere. I learned later that the terrorist on the Amsterdam-Detroit flight had a syringe sewn into the band on his underwear. Well these agents certainly knew if you have anything sewn into your underwear!
They also felt the bottom of your feet with their hands and then they wanded your entire body. This was after you had come through the x-ray machines. They checked your armpits, also.
All of this added a lot of extra time to the screening process. Once you had been screened, you could not leave the gate area. Essentially, this meant for those of us who arrived two hours early we had to sit in a confined area for hours before boarding the plane. This added to the 9 ½ hour flight time made for a long day.
The early part of the flight seemed quite normal. I did notice that when I went to the screen that usually showed the plane and the route it was taking, on the back of the seat in front of me, it was blacked out. I assumed it was a mechanical failure and only learned after landing that the U.S. Government had ordered these screens to be blacked out. No one was to know at any point in time exactly where the plane was in the air.
Ninety minutes before our scheduled landing in Washington, the Viennese lead attendant announced that we would be confined to our seats in thirty minutes and would be unable to get up for the last sixty minutes of the flight. She was clear that these were instructions from U.S. Homeland Security and that Austrian Airlines had nothing to do with them. She suggested anyone needing to use the lavatories do so in the remaining 30 minutes.
In 30 minutes, 60 minutes prior to our scheduled landing, they indeed ordered everyone into their seats and instructed us not to leave the seats until the plane had landed and was at the gate.
She then advised us that they would be collecting all blankets and pillows immediately. Clearly, they did not want you to have anything in your possession that could conceal a bomb or weapon in the 60 minutes prior to landing at our nation’s capital.
Once they had collected all the pillows and blankets, they made a tour of the plane to see that no one had anything on their lap that should not be there. They also announced that no one was to open any carry on suitcase or bag for the remainder of the trip.
We were told that the television, audio and movie equipment would be shut down immediately.
This had the net effect of leaving everyone for one hour without any sort of entertainment or access to any of their carry on items.
On landing, we were advised that we were to pick up our checked baggage at the baggage claim area but that no one was to open any piece of checked baggage until they had fully cleared customs and left the terminal.
As we left the air terminal we were grateful that our flight had been safe and we were happy to endure some additional discomforts in the interest of keeping everyone safe.
I did wonder if our experience was different because we were flying into the nation’s capital or if all international flights to the U.S. were experiencing the same extra security precautions.
While we must all be invested in anything that makes travel more secure in these turbulent times, I would be more comfortable knowing that this level of security was a constant. If it had been, the Amsterdam-Detroit event would not have occurred.
If we only get serious about security after an event, it will guarantee that successful terrorist attacks will occur.
With very real threats acknowledged we must be ready to give up some freedoms in exchange for security. The inconvenience we experienced at the airport was a small price to pay for a better chance to actually arrive safely at our destination.
Newspapers now carry stories wanting to know how the terrorist ever got on the Amsterdam-Detroit flight. It is clear that we as a people do not like to be inconvenienced, but in order to serve our need to be free from inconvenience the government has to do less than would be advised to protect us. Then when tragedy does strike, we look to that same government to explain to us how it could have happened.
Our government’s reaction to this event was like closing the barn door after the horse had escaped.
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