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Derrick Hilfer sensed within minutes upon reboarding his Honolulu-bound plane at Los Angeles that the flight would not be leaving anytime soon. The activity -- or rather inactivity -- of the flight attendants was the telltale sign.
Tightened security measures
and perceived mistreatment
by screeners cause airline
passengers' frustrations to soarBy Lee Catterall
lcatterall@starbulletin.com"They're not really putting things (in order), the way you see them hustling around normally," Hilfer recalled. "They haven't been told, in other words, that the plane is ready for pull-out."
Sure enough, four hours would pass before the flight, which originated in Las Vegas, would resume its itinerary. Hilfer was kept from switching to an available flight on another airline because new federal rules forbid him from traveling separately from his checked-in baggage. His irritation weeks later has lessened only slightly.
Hilfer, a Honolulu-based product sales representative and frequent flier, says he can tolerate the longer security lines and other measures required by the new federal Transportation Security Administration. However, he and other travelers become angry when they perceive airlines to be using TSA security rules to limit a passenger's options in dealing with unexpected situations.
While most American travelers have become meekly obedient to the new rules of the sky, others are becoming bothered to the point of arguing with security officials or avoiding air travel altogether. Their annoyance is directed not only at baggage screeners but at airlines abiding by the rules.
"There's always a suspicion about what part airlines play in that," says David Stempler, president of the Washington-based Air Travelers Association. "It's hard to know where one line ends and the other begins, especially when they (the airlines) have a positive bag match and they have the passengers and they have the bags. If you start separating them, it becomes a concern" about compliance with the new rules.
The airlines were blamed for the poor security that led to the Sept. 11 hijackings, because of their low-bid contracts with security companies that hired screeners at minimum wages. As a consequence, the airlines supported federalizing baggage screening after the attacks.
"Be careful what you wish for, because if you get it -- and the TSA is not very customer-oriented -- you're going to be blamed for their mistakes," says Stempler, "and that's what's starting to happen. It's a substantially growing problem."
The hassle facing air travelers presents a public-relations problem that airlines have begun to recognize. Several weeks ago, Donald J. Carty, American Airlines' chief executive officer, urged that some security measures that were added be dropped.
"It will be a hollow victory indeed," Carty told the American Chamber of Commerce in Tokyo, "if the system we end up with is so onerous and so difficult that air travel, while obviously more secure, becomes more trouble for the average person than it is worth."
At most airports, the same security companies that worked for airline consortiums in Honolulu and elsewhere still are on the job, but now they report to the TSA. The nation's 429 airports have a congressional deadline of Nov. 19 to replace them with 65,000 federal security employees, including 28,000 baggage screeners, at a starting pay of $23,600.
On April 30, new TSA employees took over the checkpoints at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. The agency has given no timetable for when most of the other airports will be similarly federalized.
The transition at Honolulu Airport may be easier than at most other airports. A year ago, Allen Agor, then the airport's security manager for the FAA, boasted that Honolulu Airport had more security systems in operation than any other airport in the country. He explained that Honolulu was among 17 airports considered to be the most likely targets for terrorists and demonstrators. Agor, now the TSA's interim security director at the airport, declined to comment on any aspect of airport security, referring questions to Stanford Miyamoto, the airport's manager for the state Department of Transportation.
Miyamoto said he was unaware of when federalization of screening at the airport will occur. "I don't know how we fit into that general plan. I don't know what their selection process is." He said federalization will occur "probably later on this year."
The TSA also has a Dec. 31 deadline to provide an array of security measures at airports, including explosive device systems, explosive trace detectors and more canines to assure that every checked bag is screened.
Two weeks ago, the top officials of 39 airports -- not Honolulu -- urged the secretary of transportation to delay the Dec. 31 deadline to avoid "an unacceptable level of passenger service further jeopardizing the perilous state of the aviation industry."
Stempler believes that peril is real. "There is a noticeable percentage of the population that's nervous about flying," he said. "The hassle factor gets added into that mix."
However, Miyamoto sees no significant sign of passenger air rage at Honolulu Airport.
"For the most part, I think everybody understands the reason for all of what we're doing," said Miyamoto. "Once in a while, we may have an irate passenger or someone who makes a remark about having a bomb, making a joke about it."
Miyamoto said "probably a dozen" people have missed their flights after being detained "for making inappropriate remarks" at Honolulu Airport. Most confrontations resulting from people feeling hassled by the new rules are with security officials:
>> Harry Hartsough, an American Airlines pilot, was charged with misdemeanor assault of a Honolulu screener last month after allegedly tossing his shoes in the air. He had been asked to remove his shoes after they set off a hand-held alarm at a security checkpoint.
>> A Honolulu woman was arrested at Honolulu Airport on June 1 because she had a canister of mace attached to her keychain while trying to pass through a security checkpoint on her way to a Las Vegas-bound flight, according to Brent White, the legal affairs director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii. She was charged with possession of a prohibited weapon at the airport.
"Women carry mace for their personal protection quite often," White said. "A woman makes a mistake and forgets to leave it at home, and she gets arrested for it!"
>> Dentist Fred Stuart and wife Pauline Espitia, of Hermosa Beach, Calif., were charged with harassment and "intentionally touching" a person without consent after being screened at Honolulu Airport on their way to Kauai. White said Espitia, who is Hispanic, "felt she was being singled out because of her race." She later agreed to pay a $50 fine, but Stuart plans to fight the charge out of principle, White said.
Stuart and Espitia had been "thoroughly searched" before arriving at their plane's departure gate, where "they were again singled out to be searched," White said. Espitia "was repeatedly wanded, like three times, and then she was patted down -- clearly a higher level of search than other people were subject to."
They were allowed to board their flight to Lihue, but security officials came aboard soon afterward and escorted them off the plane, White said.
"It all stems from them complaining about the way they were treated," White said. "The essential difference between a police state and a democracy is your right to complain about the actions of police and other security officials without risking arrest."
He cited the First Amendment right to petition the government for a redress of grievances, "which means your right to complain about the government."
Miyamoto said some passengers are selected for "secondary screening" at departure gates, but he would not state the basis for their selection. The elements of profiling are kept confidential.
The only way Stempler sees effective and efficient aviation security is through a "trusted traveler" program proposed by the airlines. Under that system, frequent fliers who have passed thorough security checks would be issued special cards designed to speed them through checkpoints. Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge has supported the idea.
"Right now," Stempler says, "they're taking a net and throwing it over everybody. You can't do good screening if you're screening everybody."
While the debate over such a system continues -- the ACLU opposes what it sees as a privacy-invading national identification card -- air passengers will have much to endure.
"I think we need to let the TSA do their job at the moment," Stempler says. "We're in a year of transition. They haven't even gotten all their people in place. They're trying to still run the old private screening. It's a tough year for everybody, so I think we've got to let them sort of work through this a bit and see what kind of rules and regulations come out, and then see what happens."
