Gee, security is tight!

Theotokos

Theotokos

New Member
After studying all afternoon for the written, I went to watch the planes land where I always do. I'm sitting there listening to the radio when the police pull up.

I turn the radio down and wait for him to approch my car. "Put your hands where I can see them. Put them out the window!" What the heck, I think? I guess it was when I turned down the radio, it scared him. I should have known better. Uh oh. I do as I am told, feeling like one of those people on cops.

He asks what I am doing and I tell him I am just watching planes land. He asks if I have any photo ID, and I show him my liscense. He informs me this is airport property and someone called reporting a suspisious person.

He asks me if I have ever been in trouble and says if I come back clean, I am free to go. He goes back to his car for a few moments. When he comes back, he says, "Okay, looks like everything is okay. Go ahead and stay as long as you want."

It just goes to show how tight even Class D airports are now! I was not even inside the fence of the airport! This was on an outer part, though still airport property. Though he said I could stay, I decided to go. I am debating going back to that spot.
 
That reminded of a similar episode which happened to me at my local airport (Class C).

There is a small viewing area towards one end of the main runway, where cars can park to watch planes take-off and land. At the time, I worked as a customer service agent at the airport.

This day, I had my camera and video camera with. I decided to use my video camera for about 10 mins to film some takeoffs in my direction. A couple mins later, this guy in an SUV enters the lot and starts fixating on me. A couple minites later, I see him on a cell phone inside his car. I knew something was fishy. Another few minutes pass by, and the airport patrol pulls in...now I was laughing. Working at the airport, I knew all the officers and I started waving at the one who had pulled in. He acknowledged, and did not even step out. He turned around and left.

A week later, he approached me at work and said "remember when you were filming last week and I came in? Well some guy called 911 and reported suspicious activity." I knew it was that guy from then on!

Just goes to say, some people are paranoid. However, I question the true motives of those people. Some may actually be craving for attention!

:)


Theotokos said:
After studying all afternoon for the written, I went to watch the planes land where I always do. I'm sitting there listening to the radio when the police pull up.

I turn the radio down and wait for him to approch my car. "Put your hands where I can see them. Put them out the window!" What the heck, I think? I guess it was when I turned down the radio, it scared him. I should have known better. Uh oh. I do as I am told, feeling like one of those people on cops.

He asks what I am doing and I tell him I am just watching planes land. He asks if I have any photo ID, and I show him my liscense. He informs me this is airport property and someone called reporting a suspisious person.

He asks me if I have ever been in trouble and says if I come back clean, I am free to go. He goes back to his car for a few moments. When he comes back, he says, "Okay, looks like everything is okay. Go ahead and stay as long as you want."

It just goes to show how tight even Class D airports are now! I was not even inside the fence of the airport! This was on an outer part, though still airport property. Though he said I could stay, I decided to go. I am debating going back to that spot.
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Well, I understand why. I was not inside any gates though. My Green Party friend said he was harassing me like all cops do. I shook him off and said, "I have no problem with the police. I do not think most of the time their actions are too extreme. People like you just think they are." And then I went off on a bit about Cynthia McKinney and all these claims of police brutality, but I will not bother to speak of things best left to www.arguepolitics.com
 
It is amazing to me that people think, hey, that guy taking pictures is a security risk. There are no laws against taking pictures of airplanes, or airports or anything like that. Period.

Even the take off your shoes TSA says as long as you don't take pictures of the security equipment, it's okay.

So if I'm ever asked why I'm taking pictures, I might do the FOB Japanese thing :) or I might say, officer, am I breaking any laws? And if he says no -- which he will if he is honest -- then I'll shrug and go back to taking pictures.

And surely if taking pictures is okay, then watching airplanes land is. People prove all the time that HL Mencken and PT Barnum were right.
 
well at least people are doing the right thing by having any activity reported to airport security.

we have a student here who is secret service trained mercernary specifically in terrorism of middle eastern areas.

he actually questioned a onlooker at the airport who was in a rental car and determined that at the very least a report to the local police should be made. this is his specialization and job, so it's good to know at least people care about airport security and terrorism
 
there was one time I was up at KDAL and there were 2 foreign guys with damn pirate's spyglass that were recording SWA tail numbers.

creeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeepy
 
Well, he told me it was private property. There are some roads back in the airport that lead to the hangers (which are blocked off by gates) and to a flight school and a corporate aviation company. There is a place where kids take their drivers test and there is a sign which says, "No drivers training beyond this point." I guess that is where airport property officially starts. I always go back these streets to this one dead end. I even drove past a cop once and he did nothing. He just sat there in the parking lot waiting for speeders. I think this officer said someone called in.
 
moxiepilot said:
well at least people are doing the right thing by having any activity reported to airport security.
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You could look at it that way.

You could also look at it as wasting the time of the authorities and preventing them from dealing with real threats.

Watching airplanes is not a terrorist act, you know.
 
The money that is spent on fencing in small GA airports make me laugh. They fence them in and still leave the gates open. GA is not a threat, never was.
 
:yeahthat:
Sprint100 said:
How do they know you're just watching planes:)
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sorry tony, i have to disagree with you to open up your eyes a bit here. tons of folks just watch planes then there's always one bad apple...
 
People are saying that they are being harassed watching planes. I hope it never happens, but when a plane gets blown out of the sky one day, everyone is going to be bitching that security didn't do their job.

It is almost a catch-22 for them. If they do their job, the public is saying they are being harassed. If they don't do their job and a plane is taken out, they are screwed.

I would rather have a few pissed off people on the ground, than a plane blown to bits by someone in their car "watching" the planes land. There is no telling if that person is chilling there with something along the lines of an RPG ready to go.

I know its a little extreme, but it's just my opinon.
 
Glad you all feel it's great for the local sherriff to harass aviation enthusiasts, some of the most absurd security I have seen is at small class D airports with paranoid security people. (SUA comes to mind) I had one at a certain airport in LA even tell me to wait for him before I did my *post-flight* walkaround! But from my point of view from an airline, that's the wrong approach to a big problem. Every day I see fuelers, catering drivers, cleaners, mechanics, and even rampers who have intimate access to my airplane, and who may or may not have gone through security screening.
 
I'd much rather have that sherriff away from the GA airport and either on traffic patrol or in a police cruiser looking for real criminals.

The threat from GA is nil. You could have a Hamas outpost at a GA airport and what are they going to do? Steal a Cessna, ram it into a Chick Fil'A and maybe crack the plexiglass of the drive-thru kiosk?
 
pscraig said:
Glad you all feel it's great for the local sherriff to harass aviation enthusiasts, some of the most absurd security I have seen is at small class D airports with paranoid security people. (SUA comes to mind) I had one at a certain airport in LA even tell me to wait for him before I did my *post-flight* walkaround! But from my point of view from an airline, that's the wrong approach to a big problem. Every day I see fuelers, catering drivers, cleaners, mechanics, and even rampers who have intimate access to my airplane, and who may or may not have gone through security screening.
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What I am saying is that I am all for the local PD or Security approaching a vehicle just to make sure everything is okay. It will be very obvious if there is something suspicious going on. Take it from there. If it is average Joe than they should be able to understand why these security measures are being taken.
 
Doug Taylor said:
I'd much rather have that sherriff away from the GA airport and either on traffic patrol or in a police cruiser looking for real criminals.

The threat from GA is nil. You could have a Hamas outpost at a GA airport and what are they going to do? Steal a Cessna, ram it into a Chick Fil'A and maybe crack the plexiglass of the drive-thru kiosk?
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GA still includes those G-IVs, Challengers, Citation X's, etc. and they all land at lil' ol places like KSMO and KVNY:)
 
Sprint100 said:
GA still includes those G-IVs, Challengers, Citation X's, etc. and they all land at lil' ol places like KSMO and KVNY:)
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I could see how a citation filled with crude explosives could do some damage. :(

I don't really see a commercial airliner being hijacked again...I think that most people now believe that it is better to risk your life to take back over the plane than it is to let another 9/11 happen. However, I bet that if someone IS going to use attacks from the air, they might try a small jet filled with explosives that could still be devastating.

Call me retarded, but I don't think that it is a god-given right to be able to watch airplanes...if it is gonna keep people safe it can't be a bad thing. And if it's never a real threat, then good, but I'm not gonna feel bad for someone who just wanted to watch the planes land if there's even the possibility that it could turn out nearly as bad as 9/11.
 
Doug Taylor said:
I'd much rather have that sherriff away from the GA airport and either on traffic patrol or in a police cruiser looking for real criminals.
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:yeahthat:

I hate to break it to the "well, if it might keep us safe I'm all for it" crowd, but if you folks think al Qaeda doesn't know every single thing about every single airplane it might need to carry out a terrorist threat, well, you're not giving them enough credit.

There is no law against watching airplanes, or photographing them. So why harass law abiding people when there are criminals that actually cause harm running around.
 
This is not just a aviation problem but the security issue with railroads is also the same. I've heard stories of people being harassed by taking pictures of trains even on public property. One guy even got arrested for doing nothing wrong.

But one thing that came out recently was that BNSF Railroad is now encouraging rail fans to continue to take photos, and at the same time, watch for the supicious activity. In other words, they're using the photographers as watchdogs. This is something I think GA should start encouraging. Like get AOPA to start a campaign to have us aviation photographers be the ones watching out.

There's no problem with law enforcement comeing to checkout what you are doing. That's their job. Its when they say we are doing something illegal when it is really not. I was at SFO in the terminal just snapping pics of planes. Someone called security on me, even though I had my airline ID on. (I was an intern) As I was boarding my flight, the gate agent asked if I was the guy taking pictures, and told me security had been called. She said photo taking was illegal at SFO. I didn't argue, I was leaving anyway.
 
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