# Tours Airport - Male security frisking female passengers.



## BOXtheFOX (16 Jun 2008)

Flew through Tours Airport with Ryanair last night. When you were going through security there were only male operatives. If a person "bleeped" when passing through the security gate they only had male security officials to frisk both male and female passengers. Any thoughts on this? (without the wisecracks).
Incidentally they would not permit us to bring through security an empty water bottle of standard size.


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## Graham_07 (16 Jun 2008)

BOXtheFOX;649326Incidentally they would not permit us to bring through security an [U said:
			
		

> empty[/u] water bottle of standard size.


 
By standard do you mean 100ml or less per [broken link removed] ( regardless of whether full or empty )


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## BOXtheFOX (16 Jun 2008)

Graham_07 said:


> ( regardless of whether full or empty )


 
Does it say something about "empty" somewhere in the rules?

We have had no problem bringing through our empty water bottles of 500 mls since regulations were introduced. On our way out of Dublin airport last week we refilled our water "containers" at Pier B from the water font just outside the nursery.
I also noticed that on this trip compared to the one I made a few weeks back that the 500 ml bottle of water had increased in every outlet and vending machine by 10c. Is there a bit of price fixing going on airside I wonder? 
Anyhow back to the frisking.....


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## Lauren (16 Jun 2008)

BOXtheFOX said:


> Flew through Tours Airport with Ryanair last night. When you were going through security there were only male operatives.


 
Sounds great. Must book a flight  Was the frisking good quality frisking?


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## Caveat (16 Jun 2008)

BOXtheFOX said:


> Incidentally they would not permit us to bring through security an empty water bottle of standard size.


 
Are you sure it was water Box?


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## wishbone (16 Jun 2008)

In Heathrow, if a female 'frisker' is not available to look at a female passenger going through the metal detector, you're not allowed walk through.  I was there once when a female frisker was occupied patting down another female passenger, and the women all had to wait till she was freed up.  Men could walk through as the male frisker was available.  I would certainly object to a man having a nice little patting session.  I don't think it's correct anyway.  Reminds me of a story de mudder told me years ago, she was at the cinema with a boyfriend and the actress was kissing Cary Grant...and she said 'and she's paid to do that!!' the boyfriend was disgursted....


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## Deirdra (16 Jun 2008)

Box, why don't you email the airport and ask them the official policy? Certainly would be interesting to see if they reply.


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## BOXtheFOX (16 Jun 2008)

Two emails sent and neither responded to yet.


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## Deirdra (17 Jun 2008)

Email the security head office also? Sounds like the airport just didn't have any female friskers on duty when you passed through, sounds out of order though.


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## Bronte (17 Jun 2008)

I've been frisked by a male security guy at an airport, I think it was the US, very professional, would prefer a female but there you go.  I mean do you think they are going to grope you in front of everybody?


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## bacchus (17 Jun 2008)

Were they not singing this song  at the same time?


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## Guest120 (17 Jun 2008)

This is ridiculous. 

Where do you draw the line? Only straight men can frisk straight men?

What is the world coming to. These are professional people doing a job.

Move along now...


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## BOXtheFOX (20 Jun 2008)

Response from Tours Airport below.

Dear Sir,

We acknowledge receipt of your email of complaint regarding the security services at Tours Loire Valley Airport on your departure to Dublin, last Sunday and we are sorry for that inconvenience.

We confirm you that all liquid containers (full or empty) are forbidden. They could be refilled with liquids from other small containers authorised ( under 100ml ) which would transform it into a dangerous item. This rule has been instaured by the European Committee in November 2006 following the foiled terrorist attempts in London in August 2006.

Nevertheless it is not in accordance with the regulation that no female agent was present at the security control on your flight to Dublin and we immediately contacted 
the security company “ DOGMAN” so this would not happen again.
We would like to thank you for your remarks which are allowing us to improve our quality of service.
We hope  this will not stop you from travelling again through Tours Airport .
Yours sincerely,
Isabelle GUERAULT
Directeur Aéroport TOURS VAL DE LOIRE
Tél : (+33) (0) 2 47 49 37 00


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## Deirdra (21 Jun 2008)

Thank you, Box, for doing your bit to ensure quality control.


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## Complainer (22 Jun 2008)

BOXtheFOX said:


> we immediately contacted
> the security company “ *DOGMAN” *so this would not happen again.


There's got to be a good joke there somewhere....


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## levelpar (22 Jun 2008)

Thanks Bacchus for putting a smile on my face.  Love the sense of humour one gets on this site


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## darag (22 Jun 2008)

I really don't understand why the gender of the frisker is an issue?

I've never found being frisked at airports in any way invasive.  To be honest, even if I were ever subjected to a full cavity search, the gender of the owner of the probing hand would be the least of my worries.

If simply being patted down by a member of the opposite sex is a problem, I simply cannot understand how so many males can practice being gynecologists, for example.  It is simply someone doing their job.

Or as Bluetonic hinted,  if you fear being sexually exploited in some subtle way, would you be reasured (presumably it was the frisking of female passengers by male security which was an issue) if a certified homosexual man was called over to frisk you?  How about if you found out the woman patting you down was lesbian?

I'm not being flippant.  I really don't understand why objecting to someone doing their job on the basis of their gender is seen as being reasonable.  I would be equally offended by the idea of a male objecting to dealing with a female in such a situation on the basis of some fundamentalist religious belief, for example.


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## mathepac (22 Jun 2008)

BOXtheFOX said:


> ...we immediately contacted
> the security company “ DOGMAN” so this would not happen again.
> ...


And their female oriented branch is called...


probably "CATWOMAN"?


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## mathepac (22 Jun 2008)

darag said:


> ... if a certified homosexual man ...


I didn't realise that anyone's sexual orientation required certification.


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## eileen alana (22 Jun 2008)

mathepac said:


> I didn't realise that anyone's sexual orientation required certification.


 
good point


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## darag (23 Jun 2008)

eileen alana said:


> mathepac said:
> 
> 
> > I didn't realise that anyone's sexual orientation required certification.
> ...



Eh?  I thought it was pretty obvious that I viewed such a fear as being irrational and unreasonable and thus my proposed solution was suitably ludicrous.

Or do you care to address any of the questions I raised regarding why objecting to someone doing their job on the basis of gender is considered ok?  Bearing in mind my example of the fact that male gynecologists are considered fine.


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## BOXtheFOX (23 Jun 2008)

The security staff were all male. The customs staff were all male. There wasn't one female in attendance. The passengers were a mix of male and female. From the Tours Airport reply it would appear that Tours Airport broke the rules that someone saw fit to put in place in the first instance.


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## Complainer (23 Jun 2008)

mathepac said:


> I didn't realise that anyone's sexual orientation required certification.


I hear the certification examination is very easy to pass. In fact, it's just an oral....


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## darag (23 Jun 2008)

BOXtheFOX said:


> The security staff were all male. The customs staff were all male. There wasn't one female in attendance. The passengers were a mix of male and female. From the Tours Airport reply it would appear that Tours Airport broke the rules that someone saw fit to put in place in the first instance.



Sorry, I still don't get it.

From your account, you have absolutely no complaint about the way the security guard went about their job; you and everyone else were treated with the utmost respect and professionalism yet you were still offended enough about their gender to write multiple  complaining emails and start a thread here on a public messageboard?

Really why is this reasonable?  Is it inapproapriate for a man to be a nursery school teacher or for a woman to be Garda?  Is it inappropriate for a trained security guard to pat down someone of the opposite gender? These are professional people doing their jobs.

Your complaining is offensive to be honest.  If someone can do the job professionally, then it doesn't matter if they are male, female, black, white or anything else.  If you had some other complaint about their behaviour, fair enough, but if the only thing that annoyed you was their gender then I have no respect for that attitude.


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## ClubMan (24 Jun 2008)

mathepac said:


> I didn't realise that anyone's sexual orientation required certification.


You mean my wife was lying when she said I needed _ISO9000 _certification before she would marry me!?!


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## gebbel (24 Jun 2008)

darag said:


> Is it inappropriate for a trained security guard to pat down someone of the opposite gender?


 
Yes it is. It is also against the regulations of the airport concerned (and I'm sure most other airports).



> Nevertheless it is not in accordance with the regulation that no female agent was present at the security control on your flight to Dublin and we immediately contacted the security company “ DOGMAN” so this would not happen again.


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## darag (24 Jun 2008)

> Yes it is.


Could you explain this for me?  Is it inappropriate for a male to be physically restrained by a female garda or for a violent female to be restained by a male garda?  Or is this just a rule for lowly staff in European airports handling pompous self-important indignant Irish tourists?  When this this rule suddenly appear?  I've been frisked at airports by both genders particularly in the US (I'd like to see anyone try sexist objections going through international security in a US airport or with US cops) and don't see what the issue is.


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## macnas (24 Jun 2008)

They made the rules!  Not the customers.


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## Guest128 (24 Jun 2008)

Oh mother of God. Now I know why there's always a queue in airports if this thread is anything to go by. Such a ridiculous issue to have with a ten second security check. Its a wonder the OP gets through her day with all the men falling over themselves to take advantage of her


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## BOXtheFOX (25 Jun 2008)

But what they did was against their own rules. If there is nothing wrong with what they did why did they have a rule about it in the first place.
Not only that, They only had one toilet operational with the second one closed. The mens toilet consisted of one sit down loo only. 
There was no airconditioning or window open in the airside terminal. Not one vending machine or shop airside to get a bar of chocolate. Absolutely nothing.
Effectively, sloppy management.


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## bacchus (25 Jun 2008)

darag said:


> for a male to be physically restrained by a female garda


great, what do i need to do ?


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## Bronte (25 Jun 2008)

BOXtheFOX said:


> But what they did was against their own rules. If there is nothing wrong with what they did why did they have a rule about it in the first place.
> Not only that, They only had one toilet operational with the second one closed. The mens toilet consisted of one sit down loo only.
> There was no airconditioning or window open in the airside terminal. Not one vending machine or shop airside to get a bar of chocolate. Absolutely nothing.
> Effectively, sloppy management.


 
Wait till you visit the airport in Morocco


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## BOXtheFOX (25 Jun 2008)

Tell us?


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