Coal Dust and Airport Screening

Snotzalot · Post by **Snotzalot** » Mon. Mar. 30, 2015 9:49 am

I wear braces to help with foot drop. Since I don't remove my shoes and braces for screening, when I go through a security check at the airport they swab the braces and my shoes for explosives and fertilizer etc. This is common for me as I fly quite often. I flew to Detroit last week for a few days and I tripped the explosives indicator. What? I said, I've been flying for years and have never had an issue with the swab check. After a brief discussion and a full body pat down I went on to my plane.

Thinking back as to why, I remembered I was wearing my sneakers that I regularly wear when stoking and cleaning the coal stove a day earlier. The swab must have sensed some of the minerals in the coal dust.

So if you want to get through screening without a full body pat down make sure you run through the car wash before the trip!

warminmn · Post by **warminmn** » Mon. Mar. 30, 2015 2:34 pm

Possibly the sulphur that tripped it?

pyro29 · Post by **pyro29** » Mon. Mar. 30, 2015 5:24 pm

It wasn't the sulfur, that won't trip the electronic sensors or even the round swabs / patches. It was most likely from trace elements left in the coal from the blasting process.

I work in the explosives industry and fly all the time, occasionally even bringing electronic gear with me that has been on site. The airport equipment is tuned to hit on RDX and other HEs.

Snotzalot · Post by **Snotzalot** » Mon. Mar. 30, 2015 5:46 pm

I shut down the stove the day before and returned un burned coal to the bin and emptied the coal dust from the wheel barrow I use to move coal into the house. So it probably was blasting residue on the coal dust. Good to know, thanks for the explanation!

davidmcbeth3 · Post by **davidmcbeth3** » Mon. Mar. 30, 2015 5:50 pm

warminmn wrote:Possibly the sulphur that tripped it?

More likely his tee-shirt saying "I Love America" did ...

You can just walk away if they want to swab you .. its an administrative search, you can walk away at any time

Snotzalot · Post by **Snotzalot** » Mon. Mar. 30, 2015 5:51 pm

davidmcbeth3 wrote:
warminmn wrote:Possibly the sulphur that tripped it?
More likely his tee-shirt saying "I Love America" did ...

You can just walk away if they want to swab you .. its an administrative search, you can walk away at any time

Naw I don't wear a mullet and had a button down shirt on, but I did have a Carhart Jacket on!

Actually I didn't mind the check, they have a very important job to do and appreciate how professionally they do it.

davidmcbeth3 · Post by **davidmcbeth3** » Mon. Mar. 30, 2015 10:28 pm

Snotzalot wrote:
Naw I don't wear a mullet and had a button down shirt on, but I did have a Carhart Jacket on!

Actually I didn't mind the check, they have a very important job to do and appreciate how professionally they do it.

http://www.democracynow.org/2015/3/30/tsa_checkli ... ns_include

Maybe you yawned or looked at an agent's eyes .... we are supposed to go baa baa.

Would have loved to see what they would have done if you said. OK, I'm going home now. And turned around and left.

Snotzalot · Post by **Snotzalot** » Tue. Mar. 31, 2015 7:52 am

davidmcbeth3 wrote:Maybe you yawned or looked at an agent's eyes .... we are supposed to go baa baa.

What kind of attitude do you go through screening with? Those folks are professional, they do their job and I want them to catch the terrorist.

Since I wear braces I always have the braces and shoes swabbed and quite often additional screening, but so what? Inconvenient at times? Sure, but the only thing I want to worry about when I get on the plane is how wide the person in the next seat is.

davidmcbeth3 · Post by **davidmcbeth3** » Tue. Mar. 31, 2015 5:44 pm

Snotzalot wrote:
davidmcbeth3 wrote:Maybe you yawned or looked at an agent's eyes .... we are supposed to go baa baa.
What kind of attitude do you go through screening with? Those folks are professional, they do their job and I want them to catch the terrorist.

Since I wear braces I always have the braces and shoes swabbed and quite often additional screening, but so what? Inconvenient at times? Sure, but the only thing I want to worry about when I get on the plane is how wide the person in the next seat is.

I contest all searches w/o RAS or PC, as the 4th amendment requires -- not what some people in black robes made up.

So, to answer your question, I am very hostile to any admin searches. They want you to be safe? Then they should hand out .357's as people enter the plane.

They have never caught any terrorist via these admin searches, just folks exercising their 2nd amendment rights and getting the reaction of a tyrannical gov't as a result.

In July 2001 I flew into Logan .. I refused to fly out of it and I told the FAA to improve security. They did not and 9-11 happened. So I don't think that any of this security theater nonsense does anything but indoctrinate us into illegal searches.

I never have gone through a nudo-scan and never allow(ed) any TSA agent to touch me. And I have flown many times after 9-11. My rights trump any safety concerns. I'd rather die a free man than a slave.

And when they say "I am just doing my job" then I tell them that they should get a new job, 'cause they are admitting that they are violating my rights when saying that. They don't have the right to have that job; I have the right to be free from searches.

Libertarian I am, I shall not go quietly into the darkness !

Snotzalot · Post by **Snotzalot** » Tue. Mar. 31, 2015 8:11 pm

So those baskets of guns and knives they show they removed at screening are just a liberal lie?

grumpy · Post by **grumpy** » Tue. Mar. 31, 2015 8:49 pm

Good post DMB, The TSA is a joke, big bunch of idiots, airport security is a joke, and yes I agree, guns on planes just like it was in the 1970's.

joeq · Post by **joeq** » Sat. Apr. 04, 2015 7:19 pm

Funny stuff. but to stay in that same format, the terrorist wouldn't be waving razorknives, but M-16s.