Travel
August 11, 2006
Boarding a plane is always a little difficult for me. Since my prosthetic leg makes the archy thing beep no matter what I always have to be patted and wanded down. Recently they have even done explosive testing on my leg.
In preparation for my trip to San Diego, Anthony found this article on new things they are not allowing on planes. Water and liquids are off limits now. While this isn’t a huge deal for my short flight, if I was doing any international travel, it may be more of an issue. I’m not really upset about this, it’s just a drag. At least I can take my knitting though.
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Strings and Yarn 
Water??? Jeesh.
I know, who needs water anyway. I actually am going to take one of my nalgeen bottles empty and just fill it up when I want to in the terminal and dump it before I board.
You’ve only recently starting getting the explosive residue testing? Lucky! Every flight that Kat and I have taken over the past 3+ years, she has been swabbed and patted down. We’re both convinced that it’s only a matter of time until she will be forced to take her leg off and run it through the scanner. The fools at TSA that we have run into in the US have no idea what to do with a prosthesis (the best she has been treated has been in Guam of all places) and automatically leap to the conclusion that she is a terrorist.
The last time we flew the San Francisco the screener didn’t even know what a prosthesis was, so Kat had to explain that she had a fake leg. Apparently she is not the only amputee to be treated as a terrorist for simply trying to fly, and last time I looked there were several pending lawsuits from the ACLU for discriminating against amputees attempting to travel. Regardless, it’s bound to get much worse before it gets better. Hell, even flying out of security-obsessed Manila was better than flying in the US, because at least there people are conscientious.
I mean recently in a vauge kind of during the time I’ve been an amputee way. Plus it wasn’t until a few years ago that I started really flying. Before that I drove a lot because my destinations were close.
It’s definitely a pain, but it’s always wise to have a look at the TSA website to see what they are allowed to do. I even bring a print out of the tsa guidlines sometimes, just in case. They are NOT allowed to ask you to take off a prosthetic, period.
I usually tell them I have a prosthetic, with a little flash of my leg. They don’t register until they see it usually. Then I go through the process, making sure they know I’ve done it several times before. That way they aware that I know what to expect. I just try to be friendly, and this usually gets me through the whole process pretty quickly. I don’t really mind the whole thing. It’s the same for anyone who has metalic parts they can’t remove.