Local News
"Florida! But that's america's wang!"
WOMAN SUING AIRLINE OVER TOY - July 26, 2002
I'm not sure if this has really become national news, but due to the nature of the story I'm sure it has. I think this is funny as hell! For those of you that are not familiar with Florida, the woman in this story is from Pinella County, which is the county that St. Petersburg is in, which is just south of Tampa. This story definitely has the makings of becoming a nationally followed lawsuit, even though it's fairly insignificant. The following is the abstract of the article from the St. Petersburg Times. It will be followed by a few choice comments from myself... Go Figure!
St. Petersburg Times - Renee Koutsouradis was sitting on a plane in Dallas last February, awaiting takeoff. She and her husband were returning to Pinellas County after a Las Vegas vacation.
Suddenly, she heard her name over the loudspeaker. A Delta Airlines security agent met her at the front of the plane and told her to walk with him to the tarmac.
He said something was vibrating in one of her bags.
She says she told the agent what it was: an adult toy that she and her husband had just bought on their trip to Las Vegas.
In a lawsuit, she says the agent took her to the bag on the tarmac and forced her to open it "and remove the adult toy and hold it up for visible view."
One side of the plane's passengers witnessed the scene, the lawsuit says, as three male Delta employees nearby "began laughing hysterically" and offered "obnoxious and sexually harassing comments."
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday, seeks unspecified damages of more than $15,000, accusing Delta of negligence, the intentional infliction of emotional distress and gender discrimination.
You know, after reading this again, I almost feel like nothing has to be said. It's just so funny by itself! It still seems strange to me that they had her come down onto the tarmac and open the bag for them. I am assuming this was all taking place on the tarmac because her "toy" was in a checked bag. Now I've never heard of a bomb that vibrates. I've heard about buzzing and ticking, but never vibrating. I would have thought that the first thing they would do is to run the bag through one of those high intensity scanners... the ones that they say will destroy any exposed film you may have in your bags. That would have shown them right away what it was. And last, but not least, they should have inspected it themselves. Run the magic paper around it... Bring in the bomb-sniffing dogs... I can't tell you how many times I've gotten my checked bag back with the lock cut off and a big orange sticker on it stating "INSPECTED." My biggest beef with this whole story is that there many other standard operating procedures that they should have followed, but they didn't. If it was really a bomb or some other destructive device, is the best course of action to put it in the hands of the owner? Hell no! If it was on the same plane that she was, she would have obviously been ready to go down with everyone else, so why would you give her an opportunity to activate the device on the tarmac... just a few feet away from the full airplane. No, the Delta employees knew exactly what was in that bag... and they just wanted to have some fun with her.
This brings me to the root cause of this story: Privacy. And before I go on, let me tell you that these comments are coming from a man who flew 38 of 52 weeks last year, including the week of September 11th and as soon as the airlines were allowed back up in the air afterwards. I am not of Arab desent, however I have darker-colored skin and features which could cause someone to think that I am. In addition, I have a very slavic-sounding last name. Needless to say, I am ALWAYS random searched at the gate, as well as at the security checkpoints. There was one time I was flying out of Miami and I was searched 4 times before boarding the airplane. I am not complaining about this, however. While it is a great inconvenience to be stopped so often, I appreciate the minimal increased security efforts. When you travel by air as often as I do, the events of September 11th really hit close to home... Especially when you had just flown the night of September 10th. What really pisses me off, though, is that the airline industry assumed that increased security also meant the elimination of privacy. These two concepts do not need to be related! How hard is it to set up folding screens around the tables where they perform the random searches? But no, they would rather dump all your possessions out in front of everyone boarding and then proceed to put everything back in the wrong place. One time I had a couple condoms in a zippered pocket in my bag. The security official took them out and proceeded to hold them up to the light for inspection. Did he think he was going to be able to see through the foil packaging? Maybe he was Superman and had x-ray vision! The bottom line is that Delta, like everyone else, is using increased security measures as an excuse to eliminate our privacy in all forms. It would not have been hard to take the woman inside a door, or around a corner to examine her bag. Oh, I almost forgot the other point I wanted to make... Women, always store your vibrators without the batteries installed. By doing this you will get many more years of enjoyment out of your personal pleasure device and will not end up in embarrassing situations like poor Renee Koutsouradis.
~ Richard
spewed out on August 4, 2002
LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!
