Better safe than sorry

Submitted by Rebecca Moulds (United States), Aug 25, 2010 at 21:14

I am always poked and prodded at airport security in every country, due to the fact of an artificial hip. I do carry a document stating that I have a "prosthesis" but the document is very vague. Not one person in authority has ever asked to see this document. There is a rod of metal running through my femur which invariably sets off the alarm. So in due course, a female security person is summoned, and I have a choice whether to have a private screening or public. I usually choose public because I have nothing to hide. The female airport security person uses the wand and skims it over my body, looking for the offending metal. It is not painful, and I don't consider this at all embarrassing. A female traveler wearing a burqa or niqab might have to reveal her face, which is neither painful or embarrassing---it is a necessity to our safety in the skies. Anyone refusing to reveal their face should not be allowed to fly, and anyone working in airport security who doesn't demand that a person remove their face covering, should be fired immediately. If rules are not implemented due to political correctness or misplaced religious sensitivities, then airport security needs to be overhauled. I still say our airports can learn many lessons from the security measures taken at Ben Gurion.

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