You are at netAirspace : Forum : Air and Space Forums : Trip Reports

Not a triumphant day...

I arrived at MAD 2.5 hours before departure (typical). I checked in a piece of luggage, then went through the labyrinth of MAD to get to the train to get to remote T4. I did my gift shopping, and then sat at the gate. The inbound flight had a delay and wasn't at the gate yet. AA68 arrived 45 minutes late.

While reading my booking and keeping an eye on the surroundings I noticed something I haven't seen there: two Guardia Civil cops in fatigues and a quartet of Customs agents. Maybe something new?

Time to board... So I get my carry-ons and hit the first checkpoint; I had 12 A in business. As the girl looks at my passport and boarding pass, I take a few steps to have the boarding pass scanned...

At which point the committee of government employees welcomed their guest of honor: me.

I was ushered down the jet way and hustled into a room adjacent to the jet way...

Up against the wall and spread 'em. The only thing that wasn't used was a latex glove

My carry-on was scrutinized, my wallet was gone thru with a fine tooth comb…

“Why do you have a firearms permit?”
“Because it is allowed in my country…”

“Why do you travel so much to Colombia?
“Business, duh…”

A myriad of questions, but the guy asking was in my space like if he was trying to get a reaction out of me…
“Why do you have heavy latex gloves in your bag??? Why do you have a bag of rags???”
“You see, I was inspecting the flight control surfaces of an airplane at the Iberia hangar, and the gloves let you feel the slightest indentations that can be delaminations; the rags are to wipe away the monster pigeon turds…”

It was over, and “you’re free to go…”
Why was this done?” I asked.
“We can’t tell you…”

Fine, no problema, I’ll be in my seat and sauced within the hour…”
As I am walking down the second jetway,
“Wait, my boss wants your checked luggage searched…”
“I am going to miss my plane,” I said.
“No you won’t.”

I said to myself, if they have to unload the container, and search for the bag, the airplane will take a delay, but I’ll be on it…
It just so happens that my checked luggage was coming up the stairs to the jet way platform.
I pull out the key to the lock and they searched my bag right there…
At this time it was 11:10 Local and it was time to go. So the gate agent starts to close the door…
Now I was getting pissed.

“Don’t worry, we’ll get you an another flight…” said the AA gate agent.
The door was closed and they pushed back and I said to the head Richard, “ I hope you are content with yourselves now, as you got what you set out to do.”
“What’s that?” the cop asked.
“You detained me long enough to miss my flight.” I said
“Do you think we wanted this?
“Yes, I do. I saw you guys at the gate at least 30 minutes before they called the flight to board. You could have called my name when you got there, and this could have all been reserved, but I guess there is no common sense in this country”

Well, nothing I could do, but take a seat on the AA37 to DFW and a connection to MIA.

So instead of 12A on AA69 MAD-MIA, I got 6J on a 763 MAD-DFW. This seat doesn’t have a window, as this is where the ducting is routed into the forward cabin, so it was noisy.

The flight was long, about 10.8, the IFE was so-so. They had DVD type players that had a decent selection of categories of media (TV, movies, music, news) I watched Gran Torino, Defiance, Iron Man, and started watching Benjamin Button. They give you Bose headphones that kept on cutting out, so I reverted to my NC headphones.

The flight attendants were a great bunch, they kept the wine topped-off, the water glass topped off, and brought a large cheese plate while I was watching one of the movies.

Got into DFW a tad late, the weather was bumpy, but after landing we took the grand tour while taxiing to our gate.

Got out and went through immigration, customs and had to place my wine purchases in the checked luggage as I couldn’t go thru security with liquids (Another reason to be pissed at the events at MAD). Took the train to Concourse A, made my flight in time AA2596 DFW-MIA out of A-14.

Seat 3F, bulkhead (I hate bulkheads)

The weather was better than the arrival weather, but I got a glass of red wine, read a book and listened to my iPod.

The food was so-so, cheese tortellini, Caesar salad, and some un-identifiable desert…

Made MIA on time, even though we dodged thunder bumpers on the decent and were vectored SW of MIA. We landed on RWY 09, and had to wait 5 minutes for our gate to open up. D-51 is the last gate in D concourse, so take the infantry stomp thorough the concourse, down to baggage claim.

Can anyone guess what was next?

No luggage, it didn’t make the flight from DFW to MIA. Maybe it not having a bar-coded tag was part of it, but after waiting for 45 minutes before going to the baggage services counter to fill out the paper work.

To top it off, there was road work on the expressway, so it was bumper to bumper until I got off and another exit and drove home. Got in at 23:30, where my wife and son were waiting to greet me…

I hope nobody goes through this type of an episode…

Damn - sorry to hear about your troubled travel..... glad you're home safe!!

miamiair wrote:I hope nobody goes through this type of an episode…

Oh man... that makes customs controls in Kazakhstan look like a tea party for little girls. At least, the officers there are only bringing you to a closed room so that you get a chance to hand them over a few bucks with no one seeing it...

Sorry to hear about that. Seems that you received more than your fair share of trouble lately...

But glad you made it back in one piece.

What a crappy sequence of events, the goon squad, missing the flight, the seating, the missing luggage... all of it. I think if there was some alternative to travel in the same amount of time, the airline industry would be completely shut down, and security would be a large part of it's downfall.

Better luck on your next flight(s).

Oh, and Thanks for Sharing.

Does this happen to you often b/c of your name being flagged?

That sounds awful. It seems like they did indeed intend you to miss your flight - some people have control issues and most end up working as security in some form or another.

Are you pulled at security because you share your name with an anarchist singer/rapper?

You did good to keep your cool. Something tells me they were waiting to get a reaction, even purposely bumping you off your flight in hopes you'd lose it. Good job. Not sure I would've been able to do the same.

JLAmber wrote:That sounds awful. It seems like they did indeed intend you to miss your flight - some people have control issues and most end up working as security in some form or another.

Are you pulled at security because you share your name with an anarchist singer/rapper?

An Alias of Dustin they said...

A person with the same name, as they always ask me to raise my sleeves to see if I have tattoos. You'd think they could cross reference with passport number or date of birth.

I do believe that the one prick was pushing buttons to see if he get the EGT to go into the Red...

I have been detained he last two entries to the US at immigration. I am taken to a back office to stew while they try to establish my identity. I had a letter from ICE responding to my FOIA request which I showed yesterday to the ICE guy at DFW. He called his supervisor, asked to see my arms, and said "Welcome Home." Maybe the letter did it, but the treatment at MAD was overboard... At least I didn't get a cavity search...

I'm surprised that the US government would share firearms licensing info with Spain. DIsappointed too. I'm assuming it's your federal license that tripped things up rather than state pistol permit.

bhmbaglock wrote:I'm surprised that the US government would share firearms licensing info with Spain. DIsappointed too. I'm assuming it's your federal license that tripped things up rather than state pistol permit.

They were going through my wallet and saw it and started asking questions about it. I don't think that is shared data as that is held by the State of Florida. I don't have an FFL.

You are pretty lucky you made it through DFW last night. You must have been wheels up and out of town before 1800.

Although, I must say, this is just more of a reason why you need to move on over to Texas with us. If you had a Texas CHL in your wallet, they probably wouldn't have asked you... after all, Texans all have guns right?

Click Click D'oh wrote:You are pretty lucky you made it through DFW last night. You must have been wheels up and out of town before 1800.

Although, I must say, this is just more of a reason why you need to move on over to Texas with us. If you had a Texas CHL in your wallet, they probably wouldn't have asked you... after all, Texans all have guns right?

Wheels up 18:23L. Went to hell in a hand basket after that? it was bumpy getting in...

miamiair wrote:Went to hell in a hand basket after that?

Straight line winds gusting over 80mph, multiple tornados in the metroplex, flooding rains, golf ball and bigger hail... yeah, it's been a fun time since last night.

The Guardia Civil are still known for their intimidation, a lot of Spaniards are still afraid of them after the Franco days. Sounds like the ones you saw were just being arses for the hell of it though - a discrete call to the gate as you say, and it would all have been over before the flight left. I'd be complaining to AA as well; the gate agents must have known who they had arrived to search.

After the 2nd detention did they elaborate on why they went after you so hard?

I would have absolutely hit the roof.

Spoke with a couple of 767 pilots at breakfast, I gave the Reader's Digest version...

"Happens all the time..."

They related the story that it happened to one of the flight crew at CDG last week.

I Feel a little bit better...

If I were you I'd leave my CHL at home next time. That might be one of their trigger points, and if not at least it takes away some of their ammunition.