BHM | November 2009 | On Turkey Day, sometimes the turkeys aren't what's at the dinner table...

This past week we traveled to visit my sister-in-law and her family in Jacksonville, Florida and flew Southwest (because with a family of five, no bag fees was a lifesaver and historically we've had good customer service on Southwest traveling as a family of five) DAL-BHM-JAX this past Saturday and returned home to North Texas this evening JAX-BHM-DAL. On both trips we had about two hours layover in Birmingham due to Wright Amendment provisions and what to do in BHM? Why spot, of course. The Southwest gates are right next to where the arrivals and departures pass on Runway 6/24, the terminal has free wifi and nice big windows. And it's not DFW for a change where I've practically sprouted roots at Founders' Plaza.

So yes, there'll be pictures from our layovers at BHM soon to appear in this blog. But that's not why I'm posting this evening.

Our our flight to JAX this past weekend, I shot plenty of nice shots that wont' get me into Airliners.net, but I like 'em and my friends like 'em. No issues. Today we flew back home, by flying on Thanksgiving Day we saved a considerable amount of money on the airfare (again, that whole family of five thing) and did our Thanksgiving feast last night with family there in Jax.

The terminal at Birmingham mid-afternoon was near dead. The concessions were closed and there couldn't have been more than 10 other folks at the Southwest gates when we arrived from JAX on Southwest 3658 at 255pm CST. Our next leg home to DAL wasn't departing until 535pm local time.

My wife and I got ourselves and our three daughters set up at Gate C12 where they have some nice comfortable chairs that have laptop power outlets. She did find a concessionaire outside the security checkpoint that was open, so we were able to get the kids an early dinner while waiting. Like I had done this past Saturday, I'd stroll around those five gates or so and shoot pictures of the arrivals and departures. I have Flight Tracker on my iPhone and had a rough idea when to expect the arrivals and departures. In between, I had my laptop out and was surfing some aviation websites- Secret Projects, Airlinebuzz, worked on some blog-related material.

While I was seated at Gate C12 on my laptop where I was reading some of the posts on the Flickr aviation groups I belong to, a TSA employee comes up to me and asks "Did you take those here? Those are great looking pictures. And you have wonderful looking family."

Okay, so I talk with him a little bit about it and he walks off. I thought that was the end of the story and maybe he was an aviation enthusiast as well. He remained hovering around our gate area, I figured since it was a very slow day at the airport, maybe he was watching the airplanes come and go as I was doing.

About an hour or so before our departure for Dallas Love Field (and if the TSA wishes to check on this, I was boarding card number A19 on Southwest 5408. But they'd know that. I'm getting to it.), I was coming out of the men's restroom and the same TSA employee approaches me and asks "If you don't mind me asking, are you in the aviation business?"

"No, aviation is a hobby of mine, when we travel I always try to take some pictures of the airplanes I see."
"What do you do with the pictures?"
"Well, I'm an aviation artist as one of my hobbies and I use many of the photographs I take as a reference library of sorts in my work as well as sharing them with friends who are also aviation enthusiasts."
"Okay, that's why you were on Flickr, then?"

(Oh, I see, you were watching me on my laptop.)

"That's right. That's how I share my pictures with friends and fellow enthusiasts."
"Well, I ask because I'm here to de-escalate a situation as several people thought you were being suspcious taking pictures of the aircraft."

(De-escalate? Who was complaining? There's only ten people here right now and half of them are on laptops.)

"I've been doing this for years on our family vacations. Like I was saying, all things aviation is a hobby of mine, from photography and art to the history of aviation."
"Okay, well thanks for being straight up with me. You have a beautiful family and you have a safe trip and Happy Thanksgiving."

So he walks off and go back to my chair at Gate C12 where my three daughters and wife are sitting.

At about 510pm or so, they make the annoucement that they'll begin boarding our flight to Dallas Love Field for departure at 535pm. I put away my laptop in my backpack which is one of those backpack camera bags that can also hold a laptop. We begin getting the girls packaged up so we can get ready and get in line to board.

The same TSA employee comes up to me, this time with his supervisor and a Birmingham police officer. "If you don't mind, we'll have to ask you some questions about what you were up to."

(I thought this was settled?)

They walk me over to an empty seating area at the adjacent gate where they ask me to sit down next to the TSA supervisor who then asks me for my identification and boarding pass and they proceed to ask me all sorts of questions while he writes on a form on a clipboard.

"Is this your physical address?"
"Yes sir, it is."
"And you're headed back home?"
"Yes, we passed through here on Saturday on our way to Jacksonville and our on our way back home to Texas."
"You realize that your activities were suspicious?"
"No sir, I didn't realize that. What looked suspicious?"
"Well, for starters you were shooting pictures of the aircraft here at the airport."
"Okay, that's it?"
"You were also seen on your computer looking at aviation websites."

(The previous TSA employee now chimes in again.)

"Now you told me you were doing all of this only as a hobby, right?"
"Yes, that's correct."
"So that is why you have all those aviation magazines in your bag as well?"
"That's right, it's all part of my hobby. Reading about aviation technology, history, current affairs, that sort of thing."
"Well you see you're sitting there shooting pictures of the airplanes, looking at airplanes on your computer and you also have aviation magazines."
"Right, like I said, that's my hobby."
"Are you military?"
"No sir, I'm a civilian."
"Well we need you to wait here while we fill these forms out on this incident."

I'm sitting there, all by myself with a TSA supervisor, employee and a Birmingham PD officer standing in front of me. Meanwhile, they've announced boarding of our flight and I motion to my wife to go ahead and board with the kids. She astutely takes my camera backpack with her as she wanted to make sure it didn't get confiscated or searched.

They finally give me back my boarding pass and drivers license and all they really say is "Okay, you can go." End of story. But if I've learned anything in dealing with law enforcement going back to my young and stupid days in college, no matter how right you think you are or how unreasonable you may think they are, stay cool, stay respectful.

The Birmingham police officer then tells me "Don't worry about it. They don't call this town Bombingham for nothing. You have a Happy Thanksgiving. We just have to be vigilant sometimes."

So I do the classy thing and shake hands with the two TSA guys and the Birmingham cop and wish them each a Happy Thanksgiving. Mind you, I was livid. LIVID. PISSED. My hands were shaking, I thought my heart was beating at 120 beats a minute. See, I'm a pretty straight-laced guy. I'm a physician in private practice, I busted my butt in school and did my best to stay out of trouble. And I'm Asian-American, which means I'm unfortunately culturally programmed to not cause trouble and conform!

So yeah, my cage was rattled. I was the last person to board Southwest 5408 and on that flight home to Dallas, it probably was a good hour before I felt chilled out and knew I had to share this story with my friends and on my blogs.

I'm not sure if I was right or if I was wrong, I've traveled with my family tons of times and have shot pictures of aircraft at plenty of terminals and this was the FIRST time this has ever happened to me. I've shot pictures at DFW, DAL, HOU, AUS, ELP, ABQ, MSY, MCO, BWI, SFO, LAX, LAS, DEN, YYZ and beyond. I've got a terabyte drive at home that's stuffed full of all my photographs from different airports.

I'd like to think that my story isn't one of those half-baked "The TSA took my baby away" stories posted in the blogosphere.