Patrick Smith, an airline pilot who writes Salon’s excellent “Ask the Pilot” column says that in the US, airline pilots and flight attendants are now required to take off their shoes at the security checkpoint, but thousands of airport employees are not subject to the same strict security screening. The stupid liquids rules, which the EU is about to scrap, the screaming security people in US airports, and a host of other “security theater” activities don’t make flying safer, they just make the travel experience worse, they lead to delays and anger. In Tel Aviv, the airport security experience is very pleasant, quiet and much more professional. Could it be that it’s run by competent people who know what they’re doing?
Patrick Smith writes in his latest column:
At this point, the whole apparatus of concourse security is little more than a stage presentation, a theater of the absurd, choreographed to the cowardly notion that confiscating shampoo bottles and forcing airline captains to remove their footwear actually makes us safer. How we got here is an interesting study in reactionary politics, fear-mongering, and a disconcerting willingness of the American public to accept almost anything in the name of “security.” We have come to equate intrusiveness and inconvenience with safety.
We shall see if anything changes in US airports. I’m not holding my breath. At least in Amsterdam, you don’t have to take off your shoes and in the near future, they’ll probably not confiscate your lip gloss.
