If a bad guy decided to be wheelchair bound could he effectively bypass a security checkpoint in the airport?  Do handicapped people have the same treatment as everyone else?

I saw a report on dateline or some similar show where they snuck metal objects through security via wheelchair without them being discovered...

Often times, when security detects a metal object, but they don't initially find it while searching, they give up and let people pass... this is the nature of complacency.

I saw that report too.  Very scary how easy it is to get by the checkpoints.

I have seen wheelchair bound passengers get switched from "their" chair to a special "airline" chair that fits through the aisles. The original chair then gets put in the cargo area, and returned to them as they de-plane. I don't know if this happens at all airports/airlines.

You know, read Richard Marchinko and you'll find out why security sucks so much.  At my local international airport, the county does security for it by contracting out to a local firm.  The contract is filled by a bidding process and the county takes the lowest bidder.  That means minimum wage.  That means loser.  The people checking out baggage are three time losers, no felony conviction for thirty days (only job requirement), minimum wage, "just smoked my breakfast" kinda guys and gals.  That's why we had and still have this security problem in airports.  These people haven't become "crack" security experts in the past few weeks since 9/11.  If nothing else they're probably so stressed out that they smoke even more for breakfast.  DON'T FLY - that is THE only safety.

I have to fly in a few weeks, and I have a headache right now.

That's kinda scary... I'm invisioning a wheel chair hollow frame or in the tires filled with C4?  

It would be pretty easy to conceal and they certainly cant x-ray it... if they had a remote detonator somewhere?

Ya know, its kinda like dentistry... you treat every patient with "Universal Precautions" as though they are contageous and you shouldnt have to worry about catching a disease as your risks of exposure are minimized... well let me tell ya, that's very true, [b]BUT![/b], when a patient discloses that they are HIV positive?  Its like a gun in that you treat ALL guns as if they are loaded, but when you know for a fact that its loaded, sub-conciously you treat that weapon with perhaps a little more respect...

Same goes for any Arab looking person in a wheel chair... cry discrimination all you want in the name of political correctness... IF I were in charge of security, I'd be paying a little closer attention to any ARAB looking person traveling through an airport.... but thats just me, guess I'm funny that way.

M.

I'm confined to a cane and ocassionally use a wheelchair if I'm going to have to be on my bad legs too long. (Read gun show, especially the big Tulsa show.)
I've never boarded a plane in a chair but have went into courthouses and yes, they do let you go on through. Frankly if the person was up to no good they could start through and if they were questioned too much and put up a fuss the rest of the sheep would start bleeting that the bad ol' security people were picking on them.

You dont need to hide, just have fast feet!
[url]http://www.arizonarepublic.com/news/articles/1009flights09.html[/url]

That would work untill they got their African Muslim bretherin to start carrying the bombs for them.

Or Eastern European, blond-haired blue-eyed Muslim militant types...