Why Does Toledo Express Airport Need a Full-Body Scanner?

December 17, 2010 at 10:36 AM | by JetSetCD | Comments (2)

Yesterday, it was announced that the latest airport to receive a Full-Body Scanner was Toledo Express Airport, in Toledo, Ohio. Our first thought: "umm, why?" Toledo Express isn't exactly known for being a high-traffic airport with a variety of passengers passing through; in fact, it's barely known at all, seeing as how it serves a whopping average of five flights a day to such exotic locales as Chicago and Minneapolis, and—if they're lucky—Detroit, only 45 minutes north by car.

Now we're not blindly hating on TOL; we've got family in the area and we've flown into and out of this airport more times than we care to admit. It's just that Toledo Express Airport has no reason to have a full-body scanner, other than the vague cry of "terrorism." All the potential knife-wielding gang members flying out already hustle up to Detroit to catch flights anyway. Toledo can't even call itself "Toledo International" because it only offers regional flights. But wait, now let's talk about the current security at TOL and why it's enough...

A wise fellow traveler once made this acute observation to us:

In Europe, it's the big airports that have the rigorous security and hard-assed agents while the small-town airports are friendlier, more laid-back though just as detail-oriented. In the US, however, that's completely flipped. I've found it's the small US airports who employ the power-trip agents and go whole-hog with each person's screening.

This is something we've experienced ourselves, in many small airports but also at Toledo Express. It may be out of boredom, since there's rarely a line of people for security in the first place. In fact, without a full-body scanner, they could even just spend 15 minutes frisking every person and still not make much a wait.

Side story: once, we took a chance and tried to fly from TOL with a small hookah we had bought (and successfully flown over as carry-on) from Tunisia. Security took it apart as they had never heard of a hookah before, and then almost had us arrested for trying to fly with a bludgeoning device. Yes, those exact words were used. So focused were they on that, that they never even touched our carry-on bag to search it.

So maybe Toledo Express has ordered up a full-body scanner to mask agent incompetence? Surely that's one of the reasons many airports are getting the machines, because then it can be the machine's fault that no one caught the 12" razor blades carried on by one of the Mythbusters recently.

Just have a look at the list of airports (both US and Canadian) that have full-body scanners and count how many itty bitty, nowhereland airports have ponied up cash for one. There's more than a few (there's a lot in Texas, actually). So through all this, through the installation of one at TOL, we can only see that it's the scanner company lobbyists that are doing their job, and the TSA agents who aren't.

[Photo: mattbatt0]

Comments (2)

Return to » Why Does Toledo Express Airport Need a Full-Body Scanner?

I must admit, I laughed for a good 5 minutes after reading this. Not because I live in Ohio, but because I did not know that Toledo even had an airport :-) I enjoyed reading this.

This elementary analysis of airport security is wrong, and troubling, on many levels. Regardless of one's opinion on the new scanning technology and its use for aviation security, the idea that smaller airports don't need the same level of security as busier airports flies in the face of everything we have observed over the past many years. Have we already forgotten that the 9/11 terrorists began their journey that day from Portland, ME? The way the U.S. aviation system is designed, once you're IN the system (with some exceptions), you're in the system--without any need for re-screening again in the USA. The terrorists know it, too, which is why they have often used smaller airports as "gateways" into the system from which they then connect to larger flights/airports where the "damage" is intended to be carried-out. Although we no longer have service between TOL and DTW as of just this fall, until then, it was quite common for TOL-based travelers to park their cars at TOL, hop a quick flight to DTW, and connect here to any point in the world. I think I speak for all of us at DTW when I say that I am grateful to know security at the smaller, feeder airports that send travelers our way have the same security standards that we do at the major hubs!

Jaunted

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