Observations by a Citizen: Airport Security – Then and Now

By Hal Rounds

Back in 1965, I was dating a girl I’d met in college. We both lived near the campus in Santa Barbara, but “home” was with our parents, hers in the San Francisco area, and mine 400 miles to the south in the Los Angeles area. I believe it was summer vacation when we were at our respective parents’ homes and we arranged for me to fly up there to spend a weekend with her.

Traffic got me to Los Angeles International Airport (“LAX”) late. I parked my car, hurried to the PSA (“Pacific Southwest Airlines”) terminal, trotted along the wide corridor to the large lobby and the gate for my flight. There was no such thing as “screening,” so that didn’t take long. The lady at the gate sold me the ticket for my flight (Yes, tickets were sold at a desk by the gate if you didn’t have reservations. I think it was $12), and told me to hurry because the plane was about to leave.  

I rushed through the gate and descended the stairs to the apron where my flight was parked. In 1965 there were no “tunnels” extending from the lobby to the aircraft door. You just walked down the stairs and walked across the concrete to the portable stairs up to the plane’s door. There was no fenced approach path, you just looked at where you were going to go, and walked there. 

But, there was no plane there – the floodlights illuminated an empty ramp. My Lockheed “Electra” (a 4-engine turboprop airliner) had left. What was I to do??

A couple hundred feet to the right I saw a PSA 727 (a 3-engine jet, still new in 1965).  So, I hurried over to that plane, and asked the attendant at the top of the stairs if that plane was going to SFO (San Francisco). He responded “Yep!” I told him my ticket was for the Electra flight. He said that plane had left a few minutes earlier; but his flight had some empty seats, they were about to close up, so come on. I dashed up the stairs with my carry-ons; he closed up the plane; I found a seat, and we taxied out.

The jet was faster than the Electra, so we landed in SFO a few minutes before the plane I had been scheduled on. I found my girlfriend waiting at the other plane’s gate, and we left.

It was good to fly back then. No one searched or x-rayed you or your things, nor why you were flying.  It doesn’t seem that long ago when family could have a goodbye hug right before you walked through the gate, and they watched you board your plane from the lobby windows.

And, from my perspective, it was Constitutional. There were no insulting searches of your body or luggage. If you carried a gun discreetly, nobody freaked out. No searches were forced on you unless there was a warrant.

Nowadays, if you object, the TSA folks may tell you that you are not being searched, it’s merely an “administrative inspection.”  But like a rose, even if the name is changed, the smell is the same.  

Today we are persuaded that the only “safe” places are ones where official agents control your access and behavior; and that the idea of protecting yourself is an infringement on the job of your government.

So, aren’t we safer? I wonder. Even the tragic events of 9-11-2001 might have been different if Americans hadn’t been disarmed and submissive to unjustified searches.  

Let’s assume that the terrorists had tried that attack, even carrying guns. And, that there would have been one or two American “good guys” with their concealed guns on each plane. Even if an attack had led to a shootout that made the plane crash (like Flight 93’s did when a few passengers realized that it was their duty alone to stop the hijackers), would the people in the Twin Towers and the Pentagon have lived through that day?

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