Airport Security?

True story that took place in 2006: A young woman in her 20s is flying within the United States. She intends to carry on her luggage, as usual, but after boarding the plane, she discovers there is no room in the overhead compartments for her bag. A flight attendant collects the bag for last-minute checking. The young woman completes the first leg of her flight, but the plane is late. Very late. So late that the young woman has to run to the gate of her connecting flight. When she arrives, everyone else has boarded, but the two desk attendants assure her they can still put her on the plane. As one calls the plane to notify the crew of one more passenger, the other says, “Just give us your boarding pass, please.”

The young woman reaches for her boarding pass - then remembers: it’s in the outside pocket of the bag she had to check in! “Oh! Well, that’s okay. I’ll just print you a new one. Can you give me your ID?” says one of the attendants. The young woman smacks herself in the forehead. Her driver’s license is WITH the boarding pass in the outside pocket of her bag - which is on the plane that is about to depart! The sudden implications of being stuck in an airport, 1500 miles from home, with no plane ticket or photo identification begins to dawn on her, but before she can say anything -

“Well, what’s your name, hon’?” The attendant types in the young woman’s last name. “Here you go - don’t worry about it!” And to her great surprise, the young woman is provided with a new boarding pass, printed at the last minute for a flight that is already boarded and minutes from door , although she has shown no proof of who she is or that she has even purchased a ticket.

Two desk agents (one white, the other possibly so) in Texas enthusiastically usher a young woman of color with an Arabic name onboard a flight under such circumstances? Maybe she really does have “an honest face!”

(photo by HSA: Okay!)

Comments

4 Responses to “Airport Security?”

joseph on December 11th, 2006 8:10 am

hella ya
Paul on December 16th, 2006 6:35 am

She may indeed have an honest face,but she wouldn’t get on my plane unless her identification et al were in order. Safety first !
LaReinaCobre on December 16th, 2006 8:00 pm

I thought it was pretty terrible, personal. Getting on the plane is all fine and good because she knew she wasn’t a safety hazard, but what on earth were these agents thinking?!!
Stentor on December 23rd, 2006 6:42 pm

Wow, that was a lucky break for you. I guess I can sort of see that the agents would assume that you had to have gone through security to even get to the gate area, and the chances that you’d be able to accurately give the name of a person who was supposed to be on that plane but hadn’t boarded yet were pretty small unless you were the person in question.