3 ms·

I find it crazy that the US exported this whole system to the world, must be good business for the companies supplying the security theater though.

crmd 5y ago
Israel was doing it before the US. Going through Ben Gurion airport is next-level unpleasant as a business traveler.
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  Israel was doing it for ~50yr before anyone else was.
- skeeter2020 5y ago
  You could also argue that Israel has done a lot of it "right", at least compared to the rest of the world.
- adrian_b 5y ago
  I have been a frequent flyer with El Al (Israeli airline) both before 2001 and some years after that. I have not flied recently to Israel, so I do not know if their methods have changed, becoming more similar with what is typical for USA and Europe. The methods used by Israel and by USA (the USA methods being imitated by most other countries) for checking the flight passengers did not have any resemblance. After 2001, Israel did not make any change in their procedures, because there was no reason, their procedures were much better than what was invented then in USA. While USA has relied on spending much money on improved machines for scanning people and luggage and in harassing the passengers with things like taking off the shoes, Israel did not rely on machines, but on ancient low-tech methods, i.e. well-trained professionals who questioned the passengers. The main test that you had to pass to be allowed boarding were 2 separate discussions with 2 Israeli security agents, to whom you had to explain the purpose of your flight. The 2 agents asked mostly the same questions, but with various variations in content and order, so you had to tell convincingly the same story twice. From the point of view of the traveler, the disadvantage of the Israeli method was that it was slow, a lot of time was needed for the discussions with the agents. Nevertheless, I prefer that method, because it was much less stressful for me than having to do a lot of unpacking, then undressing, and then dressing, and then packing, while having to be very careful to not have something lost or stolen (I usually travel with a very large number of electronic devices, many of them small and easy to loose; I have also seen once how the laptop of another traveler was successfully stolen before entering the scanning machine, without anyone noticing how; I do not know whether the thief could have been identified later, from the security camera recordings). In many hundreds of flights with El Al, I was subjected to a body search only once, while on the airlines embracing the USA model, many travelers now do not remember any more the times when they did not have to pass through a body and personal luggage security check. The only one case when I had to pass through a body search was because I happened too be extremely tired and I wished that the discussions would pass faster, but of course, my noticeable haste had the opposite effect. The flight was late in the evening and all the day I had been extremely busy. I had literally run through the city the entire day, to complete various errands in time from the flight. After much effort, I had succeeded to reach the airport just in time, but I was exhausted and I just wanted to reach the airplane ASAP, to finally be able to rest. However, the security agents noticed that I seem to be in a hurry, and they thought that this is suspicious. Therefore I had to also pass through the body search, but like I have said, they did not do such searches on everyone, but only when they had grounds for suspicion.

crmd 5y ago

Israel was doing it before the US. Going through Ben Gurion airport is next-level unpleasant as a business traveler.

throwaway0a5e 5y ago
Israel was doing it for ~50yr before anyone else was.
skeeter2020 5y ago
You could also argue that Israel has done a lot of it "right", at least compared to the rest of the world.
adrian_b 5y ago
I have been a frequent flyer with El Al (Israeli airline) both before 2001 and some years after that. I have not flied recently to Israel, so I do not know if their methods have changed, becoming more similar with what is typical for USA and Europe. The methods used by Israel and by USA (the USA methods being imitated by most other countries) for checking the flight passengers did not have any resemblance. After 2001, Israel did not make any change in their procedures, because there was no reason, their procedures were much better than what was invented then in USA. While USA has relied on spending much money on improved machines for scanning people and luggage and in harassing the passengers with things like taking off the shoes, Israel did not rely on machines, but on ancient low-tech methods, i.e. well-trained professionals who questioned the passengers. The main test that you had to pass to be allowed boarding were 2 separate discussions with 2 Israeli security agents, to whom you had to explain the purpose of your flight. The 2 agents asked mostly the same questions, but with various variations in content and order, so you had to tell convincingly the same story twice. From the point of view of the traveler, the disadvantage of the Israeli method was that it was slow, a lot of time was needed for the discussions with the agents. Nevertheless, I prefer that method, because it was much less stressful for me than having to do a lot of unpacking, then undressing, and then dressing, and then packing, while having to be very careful to not have something lost or stolen (I usually travel with a very large number of electronic devices, many of them small and easy to loose; I have also seen once how the laptop of another traveler was successfully stolen before entering the scanning machine, without anyone noticing how; I do not know whether the thief could have been identified later, from the security camera recordings). In many hundreds of flights with El Al, I was subjected to a body search only once, while on the airlines embracing the USA model, many travelers now do not remember any more the times when they did not have to pass through a body and personal luggage security check. The only one case when I had to pass through a body search was because I happened too be extremely tired and I wished that the discussions would pass faster, but of course, my noticeable haste had the opposite effect. The flight was late in the evening and all the day I had been extremely busy. I had literally run through the city the entire day, to complete various errands in time from the flight. After much effort, I had succeeded to reach the airport just in time, but I was exhausted and I just wanted to reach the airplane ASAP, to finally be able to rest. However, the security agents noticed that I seem to be in a hurry, and they thought that this is suspicious. Therefore I had to also pass through the body search, but like I have said, they did not do such searches on everyone, but only when they had grounds for suspicion.