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American airline security prior to 9/11 was non existent.
Xmas 2000 Eva and I were flying to LA via Newark. Somehow I managed to lose my boarding pass for the 2nd leg, NY-LA. I was not allowed onto the plane. But my luggage went without me.
This was post Lockerbie, when terrorists put luggage on a plane and did not board. In Europe if this happnes by law the luggege has to be taken off the plane, no matter of flight shedules.
But it has not got a lot better. Last January I flew again to LA. On both NY-LA and back again the "computer" pulled me out to have my luggage examined. This is stupid, a computer checks whether you could be a terrorist? I must fit the profile exactly, 51 years old, flying from the Czech Republic, in business class with a frequent flyers gold card. In JFK on the return leg the two turkish students in front of me in the booking line were not so closely examined.
In Europe we take this seriously, people decide who will be checked and if some one screams racial prujudiice, so be it.
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