I just had the most entertaining TSA patdown ever. As usual when I’m selected for the full body scanner I nicely request a pat down in private.
Tonight I was flying out of JFK and at American’s terminal they typically always send people to the full body scanners, so I requested a private patdown. When requesting a private patdown two male agents have to be present (one to pat you down and one to be sure there’s no funny business) so we go to the screening room as usual. After a quick and pleasant massage patodwn the agent goes to open the door, and it won’t open. He plays with the handle for a bit though it won’t open.
At this point the other TSA agent is more or less making fun of him along the lines of “c’mon man, move over and let me do it.” He tries his luck and has the same issue. The first TSA agent was pretty flamboyant and starts panicking, saying he’s really claustrophobic. They page a supervisor to the private screening room over the walkie talkies, though there’s no answer. They do this at least a dozen times and there’s still no response.
Then they literally start banging against the door while yelling. Still no response. At this point they say “you’re traveling with someone, right?” I said I was, so they said I should use my phone to call them and tell them to let us out. My mom wasn’t answering her phone despite repeatedly calling her. In the meantime the first TSA agent is continuing to panic (the room is pretty small). After nearly 10 minutes in the private screening room the supervisor comes over and opens the door from the outside.
The only thing he says is “see, this is American Airlines’ fault.” Hah, yeah right!
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