Neal Boortz
Monday, May 13, 2002It seems that an American Airlines pilot was arrested in Hawaii recently. He was charged with some sort of an assault on an airport security screener. According to reports in Dallas, the pilot was supposed to have thrown his shoes at the screener and then hit the screener in the eye with his jacket.
For those of you who may be familiar with the story, here's an account of the incident at HNL from an American Airline pilot who was on that flight.
To all: I was the FB (extra co-pilot) on the trip where the Capt. was arrested at HNL. What you have heard on the news is total bulls&*t. I went through the right screening line and he went through the left line.
The screener asked the Capt. to remove his shoes. The Capt. asked for a private room at this point, as he did not want to undress in public. After some discussion, it became apparent that a private room was not going to be provided. At that point the Capt. removed his boots and as he did, one of them slipped from his hand and fell to the floor. IT DID NOT COME ANYWHERE NEAR THE SCREENER.
The screener then wanded him down including his socked feet and cleared him. About 10 minutes later, 2 federal agents came into the cockpit while I was finishing the preflight and asked for the Capt. When he returned from Ops, they escorted him back to the security checkpoint. When I arrived there to check on our Capt. the screener now had a compress on his eye. Later, I noticed him remove the compress and his eye was not irritated in the least bit.
The local police offered to take him into custody on a "reckless action" charge to prevent the Federal Agents taking him to the Federal Prison and charging him with a federal assault charge. Yes, HNL is federalized and they are not our friends! I and the FO called the union and made sure he had bail money to get out. The tape of the incident has been confiscated and is in the possession of AMR lawyers.
I have spoken to DFW Chief John Hale and Capt. Kudwa. They both told me that Mr. Carty is working this problem and that our Capt. will be supported. We shall see!
The overriding point I want to make is that this is a trumped up charge. The part about him swinging his uniform coat wasn't even mentioned when the officers took him into custody. HE NEVER TOOK HIS COAT OFF until he got to the jet. Sorry this post is so long. I just thought everyone might like to know the real story.
Across the country these airport security screeners are turning into bullies. They know that their glorified security guard position puts them at the bottom of the food chain. Hell, they don't even need a high school diploma to qualify!
Day after day we're seeing that small-minded people like this often cannot handle positions of authority. In Honolulu it looks like some screener decided to show an AA pilot who the real boss was. In Atlanta we have one screener who seems fond of telling pilots who complain about overbearing searches: "Hey, it was you guys who flew those planes into those buildings, not us."
One day in the not-too-distant future Americans are going to come to a universal realization that the Daschle-led and Republican-followed federalization of our airport security screeners was one of the most expensive and foolish mistakes made by Congress since Social Security.
What can we do to get these idiots out from those airport security screening stations and back behind the fast food counters where they belong?
