Security Officers Have Seen It All at the San Antonio International Airport
By Amy Dorsett, San Antonio Express-News
Jan. 31–There was the human head, packed in a box, destined for the cargo hold in an airplane’s belly.
And then there were the body parts — a brain, lung and organ fragments — stashed in a plastic bag, which had a hole in it, causing blood to spill over the X-ray machine’s conveyor belt. The doctor, who was taking the specimens to Dallas for an autopsy, watched nonchalantly, munching on a hamburger, as security screeners rushed to clean the mess.
And let’s not forget about the family returning to Mexico with a unique souvenir from their vacation on the Texas coast: a burlap sack filled with live hermit crabs.
Welcome to the world of Transportation Security Administration officers, who have been patrolling San Antonio International Airport since Sept. 10, 2002, scanning everything including checked bags, passengers and carry-on baggage. A force about 250 strong, they begin work long before the sun comes up — the first shift clocks in at 4 a.m.
Soon after 9-11, Congress made airport screening a federal responsibility, and the TSA was created under the umbrella of the Homeland Security Department.
The heightened security measures that travelers have come to expect at airports are part of the daily routine for TSA officers, who must be on the lookout for the unexpected, and sometimes the bizarre. A San Antonio Express-News team shadowed the morning shift at the airport recently to get a behind-the-scenes look at what they face.
TSA officers rotate between screening checked baggage, passengers and their carry-on luggage. As the early morning rush reached its peak, about 7 a.m. in Terminal 1, passengers snaked around the security line. A patient TSA officer repeatedly issued instructions to wave after wave of the flying public — have your boarding passes at the ready, take off jackets, coats and shoes and remove laptops from their cases.
Despite the line and the busyness and the early hour, passengers were compliant. Every few minutes, though, someone was taken aside, usually because they failed to meet the fairly new requirement of keeping liquids and gels in a container that holds no more than 3 ounces — all fitting into a one-quart plastic zip-top bag.
Elizabeth Hilburn, on her way to visit an ailing family member in Seattle, was forced to throw away several containers of facial wash and lotion. Leaving behind the Leatherman tool, a kind of multitasking pocketknife, brought her to tears. Running to catch a plane, there was no time to have it shipped home or placed in her already-checked bag.
The Leatherman belonged to her son, who died suddenly last May at the age of 37 from a heart attack.
“I can replace (the facial products), they’re just money,” she said, dashing down the airport terminal. “I understand that they have to do it — it’s for our protection. I’m proud of what they’re doing — it’s just a personal sadness.”
Frequently, TSA officers discover weapons that passengers forgot they were carrying. On this morning, they confiscated a butterfly knife from an airport restaurant worker. After questioning, the employee was allowed to go to work, but the case will be submitted to the district attorney’s office.
“We’ve seen loaded guns, we’ve seen illegal drugs,” said Ken Harris, the local screening manager for the TSA.
And that’s not all.
“We’ve seen body parts in checked luggage. A doctor was going to Dallas for an autopsy, and he had a brain, lung and organ parts and just pieces of her in the bag,” Harris said. “The plastic sandwich bag he had it in had a hole in it, so it was leaking blood, and he’s just standing there eating a McDonald’s hamburger.”
And the human head in a box? It was under the care of a forensic physician.
The bag of live hermit crabs had to make it home to Mexico with family members who weren’t flying.
Working for the TSA has its stresses, from dealing with gore to sometimes-irate travelers. It requires being on your feet all day, the ability to lift at least 40 pounds and staying alert while watching the X-ray screens.
Starting base pay is relatively low, and the job is filled with pressure, namely keeping the sky safe.
For its part, the public seems to be tolerating the increasing security measures rather well.
Barbara Sheffield, a retired civil service worker, was reading a book while waiting for an early flight to Las Vegas.
“I kind of find it to be a bother,” she said. “But I understand why it’s done.”
Mike Katz, who travels frequently from his Indianapolis home in his work as a real estate developer, takes it all in stride.
“I know what to bring and what not to bring,” he said while eating breakfast at an airport food court. “It’s really not an inconvenience. Experienced fliers probably don’t think it’s an obtrusive experience.”
As Hilburn, Sheffield and Katz made their ways to different corners of the country, David Velasquez, lead transportation security officer, was making sure things were running smoothly.
Like most TSA workers, Velasquez has seen just about everything come through the airport — or try to, anyway.
“I did open a bag one time and it was full of live tarantulas. Apparently the guy was a research scientist, and he collected them in the countryside and he wanted to take them home to study them, but he didn’t tell anyone,” Velasquez said. “The airline wasn’t too happy — they released them into the wild.
“You run into some unusual items that you can’t mention in a family newspaper. … Use your imagination.”
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