Prurient Interests

Does Southwest Airlines have a dress code for passengers? Recall that recently a woman was made to keep a blanket over her legs in order to stay on the flight. She's not alone. In another incident, a woman was made to wrap a blanket around her shoulders in order to fly wearing a halter-top dress.

Southwest -- which dressed its stewardesses in hot pants and called itself "the love airline" back in the 1970s -- relies on employees to decide whether a passenger's attire may offend other customers.

  CNN

And this ain't the seventies.

But what kind of policy is that? Allowing the employees to decide what the passengers can wear? Very bizarre. If it's what might offend the other passengers, then I'd suggest anyone caught in this predicament in the future demand to take a poll.

"We don't have a dress code. We rely on our employees to use common sense, good judgment and good taste," [Southwest spokesman Chris] Mainz said. "It's so rare for us to have to address a customer's clothing issue."

Apparently not. You've got some fashion nazis working your airlines, pal.

But really, this is the trend for the U.S. Our "war on terror" and the religious right's reach into politics is giving us a country of petty tyrants unleashed.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Sit Back and Enjoy Your Flight

Officials at Nepal's state-run airline have sacrificed two goats to appease Akash Bhairab, the Hindu sky god, following technical problems with one of its Boeing 757 aircraft, the carrier said Tuesday.

Nepal Airlines, which has two Boeing aircraft, has had to suspend some services in recent weeks due the problem.

The goats were sacrificed in front of the troublesome aircraft Sunday at Nepal's only international airport in Kathmandu in accordance with Hindu traditions, an official said.

"The snag in the plane has now been fixed and the aircraft has resumed its flights," said Raju K.C., a senior airline official.

  

Allrighty then.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

New Flight Rules

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced that starting six months from now airlines operating international flights will be required to send the government their passenger list data before the planes take off rather than afterwards, as is now the case.

The early sharing of passenger information was designed to give U.S. authorities more time to identify and remove from flights suspected terrorists like Richard Reid, who attempted to light a shoe bomb on a trans-Atlantic flight in Dec. 2001.

"Now the airlines give us their manifests after the plane has left the ground and that is too late," Chertoff said.

  Yahoo

I suppose we will be sitting on the runway for a while longer then.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Airport security changes

Down, not up.

Edmund S. "Kip" Hawley, an assistant secretary of homeland security, directed his staff to propose changes in how the agency screens 2 million passengers a day. The staff's first set of recommendations, detailed in an Aug. 5 document, includes proposals to lift the ban on various carry-on items such as scissors, razor blades and knives less than five inches long. It also proposes that passengers no longer routinely be required to remove their shoes at security checkpoints.

[...]

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff signaled the effort when he announced that the agency would eliminate a requirement that forced passengers to remain in their seats during the first and last 30 minutes of flights using Reagan National Airport.

[...]

The proposal also would allow ice picks, throwing stars and bows and arrows on flights.

[...]

If approved, only passengers who set off walk-through metal detectors or are flagged by a computer screening system will have to remove their shoes at security checkpoints. The proposal also would give security screeners the discretion to ask certain passengers "presenting reasonably suspicious behavior or threat characteristics" to remove their shoes.

The proposal also would give screeners discretion in determining whether to pat down passengers. For example, screeners would not have to pat down "those persons whose outermost garments closely conform to the natural contour of the body."

[...]

Currently, the system commonly flags passengers who book one-way tickets or modify travel plans at the last minute.

  WaPo article

I guess I can expect to be pulled out and patted down on my way to Mexico. But I can take my throwing stars with me.

Douglas R. Laird, former head of security for Northwest Airlines, said the proposal was a step backward. Laird said exempting certain categories of passengers from security screening would be dangerous because trusted groups have occasionally abused the privilege. "In an effort to be customer friendly, they're forgetting that their primary requirement is to keep airplanes safe," Laird said. "Either you screen everybody or why screen anybody?"

I haven't figured that one out myself.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.