Flying out of Indy

jmorris · Post by **jmorris** » Sat Jul 28, 2012 7:49 pm

Well, took my travel pack to Indy last week. Leaving San Antonio was uneventful. No one raised an eyebrow at two pistols and a rifle packed in a two pistol case. But before I do Indy, let me review SA. Flew on Southwest. Filled the firearms inspection tag out at the counter. They looked to see that the weapons were unloaded, I locked the gun case. The attendant told me a porter would take the case and me over to the TSA checkpoint. We arrived at a back room behind an "Authorized Personnel" door and there was myself with suitcase and three gentlemen with long gun cases. The agent wanded the outside of there cases, no problem. He, of course, opens my suitcase which I'd left unlocked. I warned him to flip it over but too late. The gun case and my CPAP machine almost tumble out. But he catches them, wands, and all is well.

Now Indy. Got to the Southwest check-in. Declared the firearm, did the tag, she looked at the weapons, I locked the case and zipped up the suitcase, leaving it unlocked for the TSA agent. I turned around to put the boarding pass in the pocket of my carry-on when I noticed something else in the envelope. Reading it I discovered that it was a notice to any TSA supervisor that I had checked a bag with a firearm. I turned back to the agent to ask what that was about and that's when I saw my unlocked bag disappearing down the chute. At Indy the bag goes down the regular chute and then get's diverted to a TSA checkpoint. I'm supposed to go through security then give the notice to the supervisor who will then see if my bag has cleared. So I go through security, full-body scan (set off by the pins on my hat

) and find the supervisor. She said she hadn't heard anything so it had probably cleared. We talked about the differences, SA and Indy, and joked a bit. Still hadn't heard anything so I decided to go on to my gate, sat down, and sure enough got a page. Went back to the supervisor and she told me the bag has shown up and they were checking it. Fine, went back to the gate, sat down and got paged again. Went back and the supervisor told me the magic wand had gone off on my gun case, someone would be coming up to meet me. In a few minutes another agent came up, asked my name and also told me the wand had gone off. Asked for my keys. I said, aren't I going to unlock it? He said no, you're not allowed back there.

Now, at this point, I know someone is going to say dag nab it, ain't no way I'd of given him my key. Being there, I know that I would have more than likely stood there arguing for four hours until my flight took off without me. So I gave him my keys, he disappeared, reappeared in about 15 minutes and said everything was fine. For the next five minutes we stood there talking about the SUB2000.

Got on the plane, flew home, picked up my bag and it was still unlocked.

A side note. I thought I'd be able to just reuse my SW declaration tag from SA but the Indy agent told me I couldn't. I looked closer at the one I had and noticed it had the baggage claim number on it. But then I looked at the Indy one and it also had the flight information. SA form dated 07/06, Indy 08/06. SA must have one load of the old forms.

I'm also seriously considering getting a much larger gun case that could travel as a second bag. As long as I fly Southwest I can get it on free and it eliminates much of the hassle.

And finally, I will note that right before security in Indy there was a sign that said in the previous week 52 handguns and two "artfully concealed objects" had been confiscated.