The biggest thing that shocked me was how lax the airports were outside of the United States…well, in Chile at least.
Upon our arrival at the airport to fly to Atlanta, I threw away two full bottles of water I had accumulated over the trip, but simply couldn’t drink. (I think I drank four bottles not including meals that day to rehydrate before the flight!) I knew that shortly after checking-in I would go through security and have to discard liquids that did not fit the three-ounce in a ziploc bag rule.
Well, we got to security and I was in for a rude awakening. While waiting in line, I automatically removed my shoes and jacket and took my liquids bag out of my carry-on bag. I proceeded to go through security barefoot and jacket-less like usual and didn’t think too much of it. However, while waiting for a friend on the other side, I noticed everyone was wearing shoes except for me and other people that were obviously American—namely our group. This concerned me.
Later, when our group was together again, I overheard a classmate talking about being told specifically not to take shoes off and liquids out of their bag. They were told, “We don’t do that here.” He even mentioned that he saw someone drinking water while going through the metal detector. This elevated my level of concern.
I thought surely there would be another level of screening for passengers bound for the United States. Well, there was, but it didn’t help to ease my concerns. After we had our tickets scanned in and you usually go down the jetway to the plane, we waited in another line. This time, our bags were physically searched, but not very extensively. My makeup bag was opened and the person peered into it and a gift wrapped in a brown paper bag was ripped open. That was the extent of my search.
I just wanted to go home and I was determined to sleep, so as soon as I got on the plane on went my sleep mask and I tried not to think of my earlier experiences.
Once we arrived in Atlanta, we immediately went to Customs where we waited for what seemed like forever. I had no idea so many people arrived in Atlanta between 5-6 AM. Once we left customs, we retrieved our checked luggage and then surrendered it again for additional screening. We were also screened again—getting the no shoe no liquids over 3oz search we should have gotten in Santiago. I had to think this was too little too late and was really pointless if something bad was going to happen.
This caused the events of Christmas Day to really not be a surprise to me. I guess I was thinking with my rose colored glasses on because I just assumed that the travel regulations we are familiar with in the United States applied to the world, not just our country. I was sorely mistaken and I will be reminded of this next time I decide to fly.
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