Yeap. Nicely sensationalized piece of tripe that article was. I fly on business quite often. I've only had one 'issue' since 9/11 and it was basically of my own doing.

Had to fly into SFO for a meeting, that was canclled but they neglected to inform me. Buggers! So I told them to fly me right back out (I was not staying in that crap-hole city for 3 days for nothing). All the flights on the airline I was using (American) were full. I literally walked all of SFO until I found a flight back to Seattle. It was on the last airline in the terminal, Unitied (I hate flying on them to begin with, it's a personal issue from an incident in the mid-90's in Chicago).

At any rate. I needed a one-way back to Seattle. I had not checked baggage and I needed the flight ASAP. Guess what happens when you are a middle-aged male, flying one-way with no baggage and purchased within 24 hours of the flight. Yeap.. you get flagged for Extra-Special-Double-Secret screening.

When I got to the massive line (about 1 hour wait to clear security was thier estimate) the TSA guy looked at my boarding pass, started waving it around and yelling some code. Within seconds I was literally surrounded by a rope bariccade and seperated from the remainder of the passengers. 1 of the security lines was cleared, shut down and re-staffed. I was then escorted to this line for my own 'private' screening.

It really was no big deal. Full luggage search, and a body patt-down and wand scan. In the end, it took all of 10 min to complete. Which.. put me 50 min ahead of the normal passengers. I kept my sense of humor and the TSA people did the same once they were sure I was a white-hat. I also discovered the 'secret' code the put on the pass to flag me (I look at my boarding passes all the time, this one had a very special distinctive mark - obvious now that I know what it is).

Frankly.. I find what the are doing with security post 9/11 a non-issue. I fly domestic and international often for both business and pleasure.

One thing I know NOT to do is make any STUPID statements about weapons or bombs on a plane. I don't think it's funny in the first place and I don't blame the TSA, Air Marshels or crew for not thinking it's funny either.

It's sad the guy died but it was all of his own doing. They could have shot him ON the plane but they got him into an area where the passengers would not have to witness it before dispatching would could have been a black-hat.

I feel sad for the guy's wife and the two marshalls that had to take a life. They are all forever effected.

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