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ExpressJet pilot refuses body scan, puts privacy over safety?
ExpressJet Airlines pilot Michael Roberts wasn't at all interested in getting a body scan, and now he's wondering how long he'll have his job. Roberts was selected to be scanned at Memphis International Airport last Friday. He refused. He was offered a pat-down. He refused that, too. Then, he went home, according to an Associated Press report.
The pilot says he doesn't want to be "harassed or molested without cause." Meanwhile, the TSA is citing "federal security procedures," the Associated Press reports.
How do you feel about this? Is Roberts some kind of obstinate nut? Or, does he have a real point about privacy in the workplace? Drop a comment below, and let us know.
[photo by quinn.anya via Flickr]
Filed under: North America, United States, Airports
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Stephanie Oct 20th 2010 3:58PM
This isn't the whole story. Read the thread on the original forum. He went through a metal detector first and cleared. He was then asked to be scanned and refused. The alternative is to literally be groped by TSA personnel.
I can understand his point as a pilot. Is there not a better way for pilots and flight attendants to get to their job everyday? I for one worry more about drunk pilots than kamikaze pilots.
As for the rest of us regular folks traveling, I think body imaging and the pat downs are both ridiculous. I for one am not in favor of giving up my right to privacy in the form of an image of my naked body for some guard to see or the alternative of getting my girl bits groped because ONE jackass decided to hide explosives in his crotch.
We all take more chances of dying everyday by getting behind the wheel of a vehicle. This crazed fear mongering has got to stop.
ssw Oct 20th 2010 4:10PM
Great points, Stephanie. As the pilot said in one of the articles I saw, he's been going to work for five years, going through the same line, seeing the same TSA agents. Now, one day, they need a body scan or a grope? If he's a licensed pilot, we're already putting our lives in his hands. Good lord, let's stop this silliness.
smokedgoldeye Oct 20th 2010 5:51PM
Robert A. Iger
President & C.E.O.
Walt Disney Co.
500 South Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA 91521
email c/o TWDC.Corp.Communications@disney.com
Dear Mr. Iger,
I am writing for your advice about how to best enjoy a great Walt Disney World experience with the new prohibitive TSA/commercial airlines "security" shenanigans.
My wife and I have two children (one strapping 14 year old boy and our beautiful little girl, 12). They would just love to go to Disney World and we would love to take them -- but now we don't know how to get there!
Please allow me to graphically explain. On the way to Disney World at the airport, United States government agents now force children and their parents to make a difficult choice between:
1. a dose of ionizing radiation concentrated almost entirely on your skin to create a nude image on the government's computer screen. They call this Whole Body Imaging, or WBI. Please see sample image at http://www.prlog.org/10891401-airlin...a-tyranny.html of a male subject. Note that the detail of the image, even before zooming in, allows the viewer to see that the glans is uncircumcised.
2. a government agent using his gloved fingers to grope/frisk/probe the exterior of the child's entire clothed body (including genital manipulation) in order to ascertain the same detail of information as the WBI would have done (see above). They call this Enhanced Pat-down.
3. police escort to interrogation by TSA security as to your reasons for refusing the above two choices...followed by confirmation that you did not verbally abuse any government agents...followed by being permitted to turn around and go home...to watch the Disney Channel and call Disney for hotel plus plane tickets refund?
As you can imagine, none of these choices appeals to us. Other than a fleet of Disney private planes or opening scaled-down Disney World resorts all across the country, how do you recommend that paying customers get to your resorts if decent caring for their children now prohibits them from using commercial airlines?
Now that you are aware that children must submit to nude photography or genital manipulation in order to enjoy the Disney experience (and on the way home), your silence on this issue may be seen by many as passive agreement with this new pathway to your business, which I am sure is not the case.
Please confirm.
Yours truly,
Disney World Prospective Customer
BrianM Oct 20th 2010 9:32PM
I simply do not trust the TSA at all, they claim the machines are safe yet you never see them using them on themselves, I refused one at DCA and it became apparent that the patdown procedure was designed to make me so uncomfortable that I would not refuse in the future, even though a celebraty (Al Sharpton) went through just before me and only had to pass through the metal detector and not the scanner, after my patdown I was seated in first class where I was given glassware and a metal knife to eat and drink with (or stab and smash if I were an actual threat).
The fact is the quality of employee that they hire is more of a threat to transit security than anyone going through security and it all is just a big fat waste of public money.
It is also a calamity of BS from the TSA about everything, The Isreali's were able to circumvent theyse machines, the machines are not effective:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/137184
They lie about the capabilities of the machines:
http://www.papersplease.org/wp/2010/01/13/tsa-lies-again-about-what-the-strip-search-machines-see/
And finally they are too stupid and immature to actually be trusted with such power and technology:
http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/tsa-employee-pulls-prank-college-student/story?id=9635647
And do not forget about the Airport screener who beat his co-worker after the co-worker mentioned something about his small pecker during scanner training.
Forgetting all of that, the fact is he is the damn pilot which I do not belive should give him an exemption, but rather this re-enforces the stupidity of the TSA, but seriously isn't the plane itself the big weapon we are trying to protect people from getting control of with all of this crap?
Ron Oct 20th 2010 11:26PM
Privacy concerns and such aside, think about it. Metal detectors, X-ray machines, TSA fondlers all search for something ON the pilot.....
.... ON the PILOT....
If there's nothing on the pilot. He's good to go, right?
...
...
...
He happens to fly the plane.
THINK about it...
Maybe the TSA just wants to steal his watch or something like that since that's a trend so it seems.
Chris G Oct 21st 2010 7:47AM
I actually feel differently from most of the posters here.
TSA, Totally Stupid and Asinine, is hired to be the security force. Sure most of them are jerks power tripping. Sure they profile people. But you the customer have choices. You do not have to fly.
You know these are the ways they want to do things. Vote with your feet and don't fly. Or play by the rules and get it done.
There is a reason El Al has such a good security record. They are allowed to enforce security any way they want. And it is effective.
I don't believe in these stupid knee jerk reactions, but lets face it. You do NOT have a right to privacy here. You have a choice. You can submit to the rules, or you can choose to use a different method. Too many people throw "my rights" around too much and incorrectly.
Jay Oct 25th 2010 8:34PM
Ok Chris, suppose we change the rule just a little ways down the road for everyone's safety of course. Since all women have a body cavity in which to hide anthrax or bubonic plague as the Iraqi women did when they smuggled it into the United States back in the 1990's how about a complete pelvic exam at security for all females who wish to ride airlines? Would that be OK with you? Of course it would start off with only females searching other females, but with the high volume of air traffic, sometimes we might have to give up a little more of our privacy and modesty to let a man do the exam instead. No real harm in that right? And then for the men, of course we know that all men have the potential to be violent and most are strong enough to use their body as a weapon. So shouldn't we allow some type of remotely controlled device to be put on men that would sedate or taze them if they became unruly or out of control? Are you really that lost when it comes to human nature? Do you really not understand that giving that kind of power to government or anyone else will always lead to absolute despotic tyranny of the worst kind?
brian s Oct 21st 2010 11:08AM
I'm in agreement here.
Is the TSA acting like a schoolyard bully? Sure, maybe. Is the scanner useful? Questionable. They're definitely not acting appropriately.
However, the pilot is just making things more annoying (as is everyone else who raises a stink at the security line thus delaying everyone else, I'm looking at you, EWR passenger who made me miss my flight for getting in an argument with a TSA worker five months ago). Chris G is spot on. I might not like the scanners and the pat downs... but these are things that are posted on giant signs at the security line. It's not an "unreasonable search" in my mind because it's not really something that exactly sneaks up on my and catches me by surprise. If you think that, you're a fool. It's not a 4th Amendment violation since it's not forced upon me.
You don't like their procedures? Don't fly. Sure it's a little bully-ish since practically speaking in most instances you have to fly, but legally you do technically have a choice. I think there are useful and productive ways of showing your discontent with their procedures. Whining and throwing a hissy fit at the security line like an infant is not one of them.
KT Oct 22nd 2010 11:20AM
continue to refuse the scan...but go through the pat down. The more resources they have to spend on people the scanners will eventually go away.
Jay Oct 25th 2010 8:34PM
Well now you've done it Michael. Now that you have resisted the tyranny of the system instead of going along to get along, the Rothschilds, Rockefellers and Bilderbergs are going to have to pull another 911 or TWA 800 type of event using paid agents both foreign and domestic to show you and the public that invasion of your privacy and violation of the 4th amendment is for your own good. You can bet they will do it soon and they will tell the media to blame the militia or pro-lifers or angry pilots or Jews or Christians. You can bet they will blame it on someone other than the real culprits and a foolish, gullible public will beg for more invasion of privacy as they enter the airport, train station, their car, etc.
Thanks for having the courage to face off with these clowns. Yes, the news media and the slaves will mock you, but it sure beats the daylights out of razor wire and torture in a FEMA concentration camp.
We now live in a modern day Nazi Germany with surveillance cameras and monitoring devices that would make Adolf blush.