Fergie's Tech Blog

Qantas Boss Tells Of Encounter With Incredibly Dense U.S. Security Guard

Thanks to Bruce Schneier for pointing out this article.

Via aero-news.net.

Qantas chairman Margaret Jackson revealed at a Beijing Conference this week that she was briefly suspected of being a terrorist by a TSA screener during a visit last year to the United States.

That isn't all that unusual -- everyone from senators to four-year-old children have come under the watchful eye of airport security -- but the reason she was suspected is something different, and disturbing to anyone who believes we've come a long way since the days of "Leave It To Beaver."

See, Jackson is a woman -- which, according to the wunderkind who screened her baggage and found detailed plans of new aircraft, makes it hard to believe she is also chairman of a major international airline.

"The guy said 'Why have you got all of this?'," Jackson told the conference, speaking of the screener's discovery of seating diagrams in her baggage. "And I said, 'I'm the chairman of an airline, I'm the chairman of Qantas'. "And this black guy, who was like eight foot tall, said, 'but you're a woman.'"

Jackson finally proved her identity to the guard... in part, by writing a note to him on her Qantas letterhead stating "Dear Bill, this is from the chairman of Qantas, who is a woman."

The Qantas chairman related the tale after a Chinese journalist complained that airport security at Australian airports was the most difficult around... after the US.

posted by Fergie @ 3/20/2006 08:02:00 AM