President Obama announces plans for tightening airport security.
Much is being made of President Obama’s recent announcements about tightening up security, and we applaud those. Yet while intelligence and security agencies can and should do a better job of offering protection to the public, they still cannot do everything.
Just as the “twelfth man” can help a football team achieve a victorious season, so too can the public help with security. And these days, it’s more and more important that we are watchful as travelers, particularly when we fly.
There is no doubt that FBI agents and others have successfully foiled the attempts of bad guys in cases we’ll probably never learn about. But in the case of the tennis shoe bomber, the underpants bomber, and the hijackers aboard the United flight that landed in a Pennsylvania field on September 11, travelers were the final line of defense.
In each of those cases, passengers swung into action after the plane was aloft. However, it’s much more in our interests to sniff out potential trouble and contain it before take-off. To do so, we can be proactive in these ways:
1. Pay attention early. Lift your head from the newspaper/laptop/text message in the check-in and boarding areas and look around at those who will be getting on the plane with you, particularly if you are traveling to a major U.S. city.
2. Speak up. If someone seems to have erratic or unnatural behavior in the waiting area, quickly and quietly alert the gate agents and ask them to call security. If the agents at your gate are too busy to approach, find an agent at a nearby gate, or ask a newsstand vendor to call security for you.
3. Trust your instincts. If security fails to act on your request, and you’re still uncomfortable about the person who has caught your attention, politely insist on changing flights and tell the gate agent why. Your concern will protect you and also raise the attention level of those in charge.
4. Gather proof. Your phone can grab a helpful, quick image of a suspicious individual or an abandoned package, which you can show to security officials to help them identify and follow-up on the subject of your concern. (No need to get too close, though.)
5. Be sociable and observant. Engage your seat-mate in a friendly little chat as soon as you are seated, before the plane pulls away from the gate. Ask where they’re from, what they’ll be doing in your destination, where they started their journey … the usual traveler questions. If you feel something is abnormal — someone is too jittery, evasive or uncomfortable — then alert the flight attendant, especially if others also seem wary of your seat-mate’s irregularities. Remember, the plane will not leave the gate until all passengers are seated so as a last resort, simply stand up until you are satisfied that flight attendants have solved the problem.
As travelers we can’t become airborne vigilantes, but we must realize that in a complex and fluid situation such as air travel, the authorities simply cannot see everything ….
… even if they do capture the naked images of every passenger with those invasive, full-body scanners.
Peg Prideaux, CTC
010810
