Flying With Fish The Blog for Those Who Fly & Those Who Want to Fly Smarter

Yesterday Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) was stopped by a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Transportation Security Officer (TSO) at Nashville International Airport after he alarmed passing through the walk through metal detector, while on his way to Washington DC for a Senate vote. Like all passengers who alarm walking through the TSA checkpoint metal detector, the [...]

The costs of owing and operating a private jet, or corporate jet, are extensive. Private jets are not only costly to purchase or lease, but these aircraft also incur the costs of servicing parking, staffing, fuel, landing fees, etc, are all expensive … and now Italy plans to make it prohibitively more expensive for those [...]

A seemingly consistent stream of headlines catches travelers’ attention regarding Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Transportation Security Officers (TSO) being arrested for theft from checked baggage.   While statistically very few thefts occur, the ones that do and get those who get caught make headlines.   Since the TSA moved to 100% screening of checked baggage the [...]

Recently Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) introduced House Resolution 3608, the Stop TSA’s Reach In Policy Act … also known as the STRIP Act, which would “strip” Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Transportation Security Officers (TSO) of their “police like” badges and “law enforcement” uniforms.   Before we can go forward in discussing Rep. Blackburn’s STRIP Act, [...]

Security is a fact of life for airline travel and screening procedures vary from country to country … which leads to this reader mail from Gene R., from Pittsburgh, PA.  Gene writes “I just flew home to Pittsburgh from Paris with US Airways, as I have done a few times through Philadelphia.  When connecting through [...]

On the 19th of November 2001 Public Law 107-71 (PL 107-71), the Aviation and Transportation Security Act (ATSA), was enacted any the 107th Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush. With the flick of George W. Bush’s pen, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was created and airport security through the United States [...]

It has been almost four years since I wrote about airline and airport terminology … so today is as good a day as any to revisit this topic. Airline and airport jargon questions show up all the time on my Twitterstream and in my email box, so clearly people are interested knowing what they are [...]

Yesterday Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano announced that children, 12 and younger, would no longer be required to remove their shoes at Transportation Security Administration (TSA) security checkpoints and be able to have their hands swabbed for explosives rather than be subject to a pat down.   The TSA’s move to allow children to [...]

Since the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) implemented its  ‘enhanced pat down’ screening procedures in late 2010 the legality of the agency’s authority to execute enhanced pat downs has been consistently called into question.   While the TSA has the legal authority to carry out administrative searches without probable cause, as I wrote about in November [...]

Anyone who flies with any frequency knows the drill at the airport, shoes off, jacket off, 3-1-1 bag out, laptop out, leave your knives in your checked bag and make sure your H&K MP5 is packed in a secured case and is declared with the airline.   All the fun of the airport screening process [...]