Doesn't sound all too horrifying.

What the?

Idiots.

Everytime I hear about something crappy happening to people, and I hear that an airport/airline employee is involved, nothing really shocks me or surprises me anymore. I'm not saying that this isn't ridiculous, because it is.

I do like how the pilot put the security gaurd in his place though. That's fun.

@HIV 2 Elway Resurrected: Uh, so basically being considered less than a person isn't horrifying? Maybe you want to sit in his chair for a day, see how it goes, then come back and report on it for us, eh?

And these are the people you have protecting airports. Better training and clearer policies are clearly needed because either there is some weird policy this rule this dude was following or he was just a douche. Or a combination of the two.......

Blogspot blocked at work. Anyone got a mirror, or can post the story in the comments?

Its sad when common sense and respect are no longer common.

@dorianh49:
Suddenly, I lost existance.

I was waiting patiently in the airport, quietly watching people go by. My luggage was stacked up next to me and I felt that I looked like quite the world traveler. Suddenly this illusion was shattered when a security type guy came with a luggage cart and began loading my luggage. I sputtered a protest, 'Hey, that's my luggage.'

He looked at me, annoyed and said, "Luggage can't be left unattended."

"I AM attending it," I said incredulous.

"You don't understand, SOME BODY needs to be in possession of the luggage," he said and I didn't get his implication, not yet, I was still too startled.

"I am in possession of this luggage, it is MINE," my voice is rising.

He looks at me with exaggerated patience, "SOME BODY (long pause) needs to be attending the luggage."

I got it then, I wasn't SOME BODY, "Are you suggesting that I can't supervise my own luggage because I'm in a wheelchair?"

"You need to settle down, sir."

"What are you going to TAZER me? You are stealing my luggage," I'm almost screaming now.

"Sir, Sir, SIR, you don't understand, luggage can't be unattended," what world have I slipped in to?

"I AM ATTENDING MY LUGGAGE!!"

At this point a pilot in uniform happens by and sees a commotion. He comes over automatically siding with the security guy. He asks what is going on, before security can answer, I say, "He says my luggage is unattended because I am a disabled man and can't supervise my own luggage."

Pilot looks skeptical and security man says, "He doesn't understand that luggage must be attended at all times."

Mr. Pilot's face begins to show both horror and outrage, he looks at me, "I am so sorry sir, really really sorry ..."

The security guard is lead a few feet away and they have heated words, I keep hearing about 'unattended luggage' ... finally security leaves and the pilot offers me more apology. I just thank him for his help.

I'm home now and still shocked, this blog begins what I'm sure is going to be an interesting correspondance with the airport.

Unfortunately there don't seem to be too many details about this supposed encounter. It doesn't even specify what airport for cripes sake. Security person from what agency or entity? What was this person's name? Pilot from what airline? Name?

Without some better detail I'm taking this with a big grain of salt.

The guy is there with his luggage...it's ridiculous anyone would think it was "unattended."

What about when I'm waiting, but am not in a waiting area? Just because my hands are not gripped around the handles of my luggage means they can cart it away?

Wish we knew what airport, and what airline the pilot was from.

@pecan 3.14159265: I'm wondering if the thought process was that he assumed someone had to be with the disabled guy, and was wondering why that person wasn't there? Still really idiotic, but I I'm trying to grasp what the thought process going through this guy's head could possibly have been.

That picture is great.

@Canino: Or for that matter: what was the goal of the security officer? Was he trying to put the man's luggage on a cart and "attend" it for him? Or was he going to take it to the sub-basement 2 incinerator to stoke the lost luggage fire? The whole thing seems a little too off hand to pass judgment, but it's tragic that this guy was in any way given the message that he was less than human. (Even though he IS half machine.)

@johnva: Perhaps he thought that a guy in a wheelchair is so dependent that he's practically luggage himself, and thus luggage cannot attend luggage?

This is one of those cases where I really want to track down the offending person and just pick their brain. What in the hell drove them to think this way?

*trying to pick jaw up off floor* that is incredibly disturbing.

@HIV 2 Elway Resurrected: Not horrifying, except security came by to sweep up and take all his luggage.

TSA: Keeping us safe from the luggage of the handicapped.

@Canino: I suppose he doesn't want to list the airport at this time in case it affects what he's going to send them. Nothing like trying to innitiate correspondance with an airport when it's being innundated with complaints over your problem when you haven't even had a chance to try and talk to them first.

It would be nice to have listed who the pilot was from, but it's possible he might not have know unless it was the pilot for his specific flight. Do pilots wear different uniforms depending on airline? (Sorry, I haven't been near an airport for over 10 years, so I really have no idea).

@Canino: I totally believe him, in part because of an experience I had with an AA employee at O'Hare on November 2 [enough info for you?]. She pulled me out of the security line when I looked over at her standing idly by, gossiping loudly to a coworker. I had my billfold out temporarily because I needed to show my ID and boarding pass out of it, after which I would put it all in my carry-on for screening. She pulled me out of line and ordered me, in front of many shocked people in line behind me, to put everything in my one carry on, and I couldn't leave her "custody" until I had done it. Absolutely totally bizarre and true. The airport security business is out of control.

@BathroomDuck: Looks like the airport was either Fresno or Toronto.

@Applekid: I'm not saying it wasn't wrong or a huge inconvenience, rather questioning the use of the sensationalist word "horrifying." LadySiren continues the sensationalist attitude.

My gf is in a wheelchair. If this crap happened to her, somebody's head would roll. I hope we get more details about the airline and airport.

@chrisjames: Yes. This is that maddening, rubber-stamp approach to rules, where the enforcing agent shuffles all common sense and rationality to an unattended corner of his brain (much like luggage) and runs on exceptionally stupid auto-pilot. Yes, the man is in a wheelchair. No, he's not mentally handicapped. Running through a rote checklist when performing a job like TSA security does no one any favors, and it certainly doesn't make us any safer in the skies.

@HIV 2 Elway Resurrected: How about "indecent" then? (fyi, in my book, decent people are horrified by such indecent behavior.)

@Sparerib: What are you, stupid? The security officer didn't say anything to him, just started loading it. Is that "helping? someone. He's right, they guy was stealing it.

@chrisjames: The security guy probably assumed "wheelchair = mentally as well as physically disabled." I've known people who think that.

And then the airlines wonder why they're losing billions each year.

highschool dimploma and a badge... Genius!!

TSA = Those Stupid Asses.. Anyone wanna make a tshirt?

The last time I took my mother (who uses a wheelchair) to the airport, the woman at the check-in counter directed all her questions to me -- the non-passenger. I suggested she direct them to my mother since I wasn't flying and nothing she said meant anything to me, then stepped back in the hope that she was smart enough to realise that being in a wheelchair didn't mean my mother was deaf or mentally incompetent.

The employee was, alas, not that smart. Her supervisor was, though.

@Landru: Hanging on to a capsized boat in the ocean for days waiting for the Coast Guard is horrifying. Being harassed, but not detained, by an incompetent security guard is frustrating and an inconvenience, but hardly horrifying. Again, the state of the TSA and airport security is sickening. I wish the media (popular blogs included) would let the stories speak for themselves and omit the sensationalist editorials, it's something I see more and more these days.

@HIV 2 Elway Resurrected: It's horrifying that disabled people are treated like this on a DAILY basis. Period.

If it were me, I would call up all the handicapped advocacy groups, get the name of the security idiot and his manager's name and phone number and distribute them and have every handicapped person and their dog call up and complain :)

This thug deserves a mountain of unwanted personal ridicule for treating a handicapped person like that, and yes, wouldn't be above filing a police report either.

Power in numbers...

@Kogenta: yes and no.. Small differences, none that noticeble unless u were looking

Oh and the action line local press usually love stories like this too...

@SybilDisobedience: It actually makes us LESS safe, because it means that all a terrorist has to do is figure out how to evade the checklist instead of how to evade a smart, thinking human security person. And it breeds public hostility to the TSA, which makes us less inclined to be cooperative with them.

Another thing that really bothered me about this story beyond just the complete stupidity displayed was the fact that the guard thought his stupidity would make more sense if he just repeated it in a louder, angrier tone of voice. So typical to just resort to the bully mentality instantly instead of stopping to reevaluate what you're doing when challenged.

@flyboyJ: In the TSA's defense, the article doesn't mention an airport, and the blogger is based in Toronto.

@HIV 2 Elway Resurrected: "He looks at me with exaggerated patience, "SOME BODY (long pause) needs to be attending the luggage."

I got it then, I wasn't SOME BODY, "Are you suggesting that I can't supervise my own luggage because I'm in a wheelchair?""

Honestly, it horrifies me that you don't find that horrifying. He's basically calling a PERSON WHO IS DISABLED less-than human. That's just an "inconvenience", how?

@HIV 2 Elway Resurrected: And yes, I'm nit picking but the sensationalist attitude is an epidemic that needs to be stopped. Just liked popped collars.

@Kogenta: It would be nice to have listed who the pilot was from, but it's possible he might not have know unless it was the pilot for his specific flight.

From my experience, no pilot is going to get involved with airport security unless the issue is with his specific flight.

Pilots aren't authorized to provide security services - their airlines would not allow it. Any pilot just walking by who jumps into a security issue is looking to get fired.

@HIV 2 Elway Resurrected:

I am with you on this one HIV (such a weird sentence to type). Hearing of a school shooting is horrifying, watching a plane crash is horrifying. Having an overzealous security guy be bais against a certain individual for his handcapped is surprising at best.

@nakedscience: They get the best parking, what else do they want?

@Sparerib: LOL, you expect security officers at an airport to know what they are doing and to make common sense decisions instead of just reactionary ones? Really?

@razremytuxbuddy: Not to mention the fact that we've heard similar stories about brain-dead TSA agents/security before. This isn't uncommon. To think it is is very naive.

The lack of basic information (like the name of the airport) uncertainly about who exactly was removing the bags was it a bag boy/TSA agent/private security) makes me wonder how legit the story is.

@Landru: What are you, twelve? Name calling? I thought the internet was serious business. In no way, shape or form, can you ascertain what was going through the head of that security guard. You cannot tell me with one iota or certainty what that guard meant to do with the luggage, no matter how caustic and rude the blogger makes him out to be. Every bit of this story is circumstantial and "horrifying" at the same time. So it's time to put down our comment-section pitchforks and torches and get some facts.

@HIV 2 Elway Resurrected: Ambulation?

@HIV 2 Elway Resurrected: And reducing a person who is disabled to less-than-human needs to stop and is, yes, horrifying.

@flyboyJ:
The only stupid ass is you.
Re-Read the whole thins and stop assuming.
"when a security type guy came with a luggage cart and began loading my luggage." TSA nor Government employees come around baggage carousels and pick up bags. Those are $8 hour Bag Boys. Also the Blogger is in Toronto that DOES HAVE HAVE TSA = So Who's the Ass Now!

@Kogenta: then he should talk with said airport before airing dirty laundry online...

why he didn't ask to talk to a supervisor instead of just starting to yell is beyond me.