It had been a long weekend and the six members of the screening team were eager to get home. The college game was over and the football team should be there any minute. Connie as usual would be the Ground Security coordinator or G.S.C. for short. They were all trained as G.S.C.’s.. Connie enjoyed it, most of them disliked it. Willie and Ken would be the passenger screeners with Penny and Mina searching luggage. Bill would handle the manifest. They could have one hundred and fifty passengers and their baggage searched and ready to leave in a half hour. Their security searches were also much more thorough than the T.S.A.’s. They had finished laying out their equipment and setting up the lanes for the passengers, now it was just waiting for the team.
The screeners were relaxing and joking around when the door to the Fixed Base Operator, F.B.O. for short opened. A man came out and headed toward the plane. Ken and Willie went to meet him. Both had been Police Officers, Ken in N.Y.C. and Willie in Massachusetts. They stopped the man about forty yards from the plane.
Ken asked, “Can I help you?”
“My name is John Harrison, I am T.S.A. Inspector. I’ll be checking that plane. Get out of my way.”
“I don’t see any I.D. If you are with the T.S.A. you know you should be wearing it our here. So let me see some I.D.”
“I am in charge here and I don’t have to show you a damn thing now get out of my way.”
“You are not going anywhere near that plane without showing me that I.D. The way I see it you have three choices. One: show me your I.D., Two: keep arguing with me as we call for law enforcement or Three: get your ass back in that F.B.O.”
At this point they started to get loud and the pilot Captain Case who had been doing his final check came to the cabin door.
He yelled, “What the hell is the going on.”
Willie answered, “This guy claims to be T.S.A. but refuses to show any I.D.”
Harrison yelled out. “I am John Harrison the T.S.A. Inspector here. I don’t have to show any of you anything. You have to show me I.D. and do as I tell you.”
Capt. Case called out, “It’s OK, let him come over.”
Ken and Willie let the man pass. As he got close to the plane Capt. Case walked halfway down the ramp.
Harrison said to him, “I want to see very inch of that damn plane.”
“Mr. Harrison I just want to let you know that if you take one step onto this ramp the only thing you are going to see is the inside of an ambulance. I don’t know who you are. You do understand that I have the legal right to kill you to protect this plane. Now wear your I.D. like you are legally mandated to do in this area or get the hell out of here.”
Harrison stopped put on his I.D. and said, “Its okay. I can observe from out here.”
The rain had started just before the team got to the airport at eleven PM. The screeners had set up under the front wing knowing it was going to rain. Harrison stood under the tail of the plane, it was an old MD-80.
When the football team arrived they went though screening quickly. They were on board the plane in less than forty minutes. The screening held up only slightly by the rain. As the screeners started breaking down the equipment Harrison came up to them.
“I want to talk to all of you. I didn’t like what I saw here.”
Connie as G.S.A. answered, “What was wrong? Everything was done by the book.”
“I saw some things going aboard that shouldn’t have.”
“Like what? You can go on that plane and search every one and you won’t find one item on the prohibited list.”
“Maybe not but that would just be luck. None of you even looked at the items that were put in the collection trays. I could see your eyes.”
“You could see our eyes at night in the rain from where you were standing, Bullshit. The two baggage screeners had their back to you.”
Now Capt. Case came out of the plane, “What is taking so long?”
Ken yelled up, “This moron won’t let us leave. He stood back there steaming while we did the screening and now is showing that he is a tough guy.”
Case started down the ramp, “Come on let us go, everyone is tired and wants to go home. I watched them screen the team. There was nothing wrong there.”
Harrison smiled at Case, “This plane is going nowhere until I feel like letting it go. I can keep your ass here all night on a whim.”
Case yelled. “You son of a bitch, I am going to kick your ass” and started running down the ramp.
Harrison turned and took off. He was out of the F.B.O. and into his car before Case could reach him.”
The screeners, the crew and the F.B.O. staff all filed formal complaints against Harrison. After that day whenever a T.S.A. Investigator saw Capt. Justin Case they would walk away, no inspection necessary.