No I.D.? No Sweat!
You know all those people at the airport who tell you that you've got to have ID to get on a flight? They're wrong. "You don't need identification to travel on an airplane," Defense Tech pal Ryan Singel discovers.
"Who says? The TSA [Transportation Security Administration]. 'Passengers are allowed to enter screening area without identification,' TSA spokeswoman Amy Kudwa told this humble reporter today."
The TSA has told the [U.S.] Ninth Circuit [Court of Appeals] in two separate cases (John Gilmore & Daniel Kuualoha Aukai) that airport policy was to let people enter security areas without identification.
Gilmore's Identity Project has been asking for volunteers to see if that was true... [if people really could get through airport security without ID.]
Results, currently mixed. Dog-ate-my homework excuse with contrition gets you less hassle than a flat-out refusal seems to be the pattern, according to folks at the I.D. Project.
So, if you want to fly without identification without telling any white lies, I recommend taking a hearty amount of fortitude and a copy of at least one of the rulings from the Ninth Circuit.
(Big ups: Bill)
The security checking peoples IDs at the airport are security officers that are not TSA hired, the airport hires these people to work with TSA. The IDs are not really needed but you will ALWAYS be screened more, with them going through your bags and wanding/patting you down. It will always be that way. It really isnt that bad and people shouldnt be giving hard times to these people, they are trying to keep everyone who goes on a plane safe so we dont have another 9/11. What they expect to find it something dangerous that isnt metal (thats why a metal detecter wont go off)! remember not all prohibited items are metal such as sheet explosives! thats the idea for that.
Posted by: RR at February 2, 2007 10:39 AM