TSA: Fines lurk for fliers ("money goes to U.S. Treasury General Fund")

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/102306dnNatTSA.349a996.html

Most passengers don't realize that if they take banned items through airport security – knowingly or unknowingly – they could face as much as $10,000 in fines. Usually the threat is obvious, such as being caught with a loaded gun. But try to pass through metal detectors with a large pair of scissors and a bad attitude and you could be out as much as $1,500.

TSA assessed $1.4 million in passenger fines in 2005, and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and three other Sun Belt airports topped the list, in part, said one federal official, because these states usually have more gun owners along with laws that allow individuals to carry firearms. D/FW security uncovers about one gun a week during the screening process, said Dallas-based TSA spokeswoman Andrea McCauley.

Agency officials say the financial penalties are needed to enforce rules on prohibited items. But some passengers, already frustrated by what they say are uneven standards at security checkpoints, contend that fines are unnecessary. They say some vaguely worded reasons for fines, such as "interference with screening," are too arbitrary. And some travel industry experts said they didn't even know about the TSA's crackdown and question whether it's effective.

People usually don't know they've been fined until a letter arrives at their homes. In reviewing incident reports, TSA officials consider factors like whether the passenger tried to conceal the item or the "attitude of the violator."

:eyes:

Ugh, this state drives me insane. We're always #1 in things you don't want to be #1 in.

It was given by a guy who is a travel website publisher..geez, what a way to make the place sound like the Wild West. Too bad the Arizona tourism industry/local Chamber of Commerces aren't going after him.


<from same article>
Tom Parsons, publisher of Arlington-based Bestfares.com, agreed.

"There's too many cowboys in Phoenix. You think we've got cowboys in Texas? Go to Arizona," said Mr. Parsons, who also hadn't known that TSA could issue fines.

unfriendly skies of the airline passenger carrier industry.

You don't live more than a thousand miles from either coast. You have these things called "trains" I've heard of that run from city to city. Some of us don't have those, though we wish we did. But even if we did it would be a two-day trip to the next city of any size.

Same article:

Ms. McCauley said fliers can fight fines through an informal conversation or a formal hearing. Those who contest the penalties may eventually have to travel to the airport where TSA issued the fine.

I hate it, but I grin and bear it.

I have a friend who works for an airline. He tells me he has friends in all other areas of the airport (he's a gregarious sort), but he has never known a single TSA person to be at all friendly. Maybe that's part of their training, but I find it alarming.

All accross the country, after the british bomb threat, TSA employees were relieving pilots of their tolietries.

If the PILOT OF YOUR PLANE needs a bottle of contact lens cleaner in order to carry out a terrorist threat....

I mean, haven't we seen enough debunking of this "mix liquids in the airplane sink to create a bomb" bullshit? But can they back off? Oh no - it's a power stuggle now.

they don't know they've been fined until a letter arrives.

I want the fine administered right away!

Sorry, but I fly about every other day and it really irritates me to be stuck in line in security while some yahoo thought he could bring a knife with him, or some idiot wants to argue with security for 10 minutes about his damn shampoo. Haul their asses out of line and fine them on the spot!

Look, I don't like the rules either, but until they are changed they are the rules and arguing in the security line is not the time nor place to make a statement.

I see one of these people at least once a week always holding things up and copping an attitude. Dump your box cutter and write a letter to your congressman, but GET OUT OF THE WAY!