[lmo913]

Below is the letter I sent to Delta about my recent experience:
I experienced a rather disturbing chain of events on my flight from
White Plains, NY to a connecting flight in Atlanta. While waiting on
the tarmac to board our plane via a ramp, a rental car driver threw what
appeared to be a case of sunglasses over the barbed wire fence to one of
the passengers. While a number of employees noticed and other
passengers notified the flight attendants, the recipient was allowed to
board the aircraft with materials that were not checked through
security. Eventually, TSA became involved asking the passengers in the
rows near that passenger to exit for re-screening with their carry-ons.
TSA than searched the immediate vicinity of the plane. This whole
process led to the plane being delayed two hours, causing me to miss my
connection. I was forced to stay the night in Atlanta and pay for a
hotel room. While I understand that security delays are certainly not
Delta's responsibility, I believe that Delta made a number of poor
choices that may have led to the delay, and certainly made me feel less
secure. Why was a passenger known to have received materials that did
not go through security allowed on board in the first place? After
being on board, such materials could be found anywhere. Asking those in
rows near that person to exit for re-screening does not seem to offer
much security because we did not board according to row or even section.
Those people standing next to the offender in line were actually all
over the plane. Once on the plane, a dangerous item could be anywhere,
not just in the rows around that person's seat. Once that passenger was
allowed on the plane during the regular boarding process, the entire
plane became a security risk. I feel Delta made some serious errors in
judgment, which resulted both in an unnecessarily long delay and serious
safety concerns.