Remember our Matt? Well it's official - he's heading up a Terrorist Cell..

Ok, here's what happened (straight from his lips).. He arrived at DFW airport Thursday morning for a "routine" flight. (for those who don't know - Matt is employed in an ammo plant and sometimes "walks" in strange things like TNT). Well, as he was going thru the little cage - bells and whistles started going off and security arrived and he was pulled out and taken to an undisclosed location...

then things got hairy... Seems he had TNT on the bottoms of his boots .. he explained that he worked around this stuff and and and... even gave them numbers to call his supervisor (remember it's Thanksgiving - ummm). No ONE was home...

7 hours later, the Dallas County Sherrif was called and Matt was "detained" until proof could be had that he was who he said he was and did what he said he did. That proved to be the NEXT MORNING.

I know it was impolite, but by this time into his story, I'm spitting coffee across the room and falling off my chair laughing (he didn't see it as funny as I did).

But he did get out of the pokey the following morning - did not take his trip - came home depressed.

But he did assure me that he has now purchased a NEW pair of "traveling" boots and will make his next plane reservations out of Shreveport and NOT DFW.

Ya just gotta love the things that happen to us CHers .. and ya can't make up this stuff.. 

Oh shoot... I just go to the airport for all my "physicals" and xrays - cheaper than going to the doc.. they're so thorough.. 

Anyone familiar with Matt here would know this as absurd, he's done a lot of dangerous work in service to this country. 

The incident clashes though with others doing their jobs.  Detecting traces of an explosive before boarding a plane on one of the busiest travel holidays would require caution.  Even if there wasn't enough TNT for an incident, it would be obvious he is around the stuff and possibly where explosives are being made.  This alone would make him suspect and require questioning needing to be verified.

Knowing Matt as you do Barb, it would be funny to think of him as this kind of threat, and I'd agree.  Upstanding as Matt is, no doubt he'd come through okay. 

He has an unusual job at times, but when inadvertly tracking a substance to an area where it is excluded from will meet resistance with others doing their job.

I might feel more uncomfortable about it had he gotten through.  If we must use security measures, we would hope they'd be alert.

I'd be agreeable on that point, Brew, as to the efficiency of their operation, but I'm sure he wasn't going to move anyway unless his explanation was verified.

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And this probably moved from one bureaucratic agency to another, FBI, etc.

My 94 year old late grandfather left his box cutter in his camera bag and made it through Bangor Maine's airport, and they found it in Boston. He and my grandmother, who both need canes, were detained for 4 hours.

Meanwhile here in NZ, I fly every week and I never have to take my shoes or belt off. I can take a hot drink onto the plane with me through security, chatting friendly with the security people who are courteous. In my bag are things like an umbrella and imitrex injections which I've never been asked about. The only thing that has ever got looked at has been an oxygen regulator.

And on the plane there are normally people like cabinet ministers and MPs plus from time to time the Prime Minister or the Governor General. It isn't unusual to be sat next to some of them and all of them will chat to people.

For some reason we manage here without planes falling out of the sky or being hijacked, so I wonder how many of the security measures seen elsewhere are really needed.

Charlie wrote on Dec 12^th, 2012 at 5:36pm:


Here they are just normal people and treated as such.

On Monday's flight, right at the last minute before the door closed the Prime Minister and his security guard got onto the flight. Normally they have a row of three seats reserved, however another passenger was already sat in the middle seat. Since the plane was full the passenger was moved to the aisle seat and the PM plus his security guard took the other two seats.

A year ago I was sat behind the PM and got to chat with him briefly, just talking about Christmas holiday plans as it was just a couple of days before Christmas.

It's just another thing I love about life here in NZ.