Only the Captain knows!

True story!

And now, a related funny story. Because the captain had to be informed of any weapons on board—and he could demand to carry it in the cockpit if he wanted—we had one really smart captain—my kind of guy, I love this story. When they started X-raying pilot and our bags, he started carrying a large knife. He’d show it to them at security and they said they had to take it, tag it, and then give it to the captain, who would give it back at the end of the flight.

Seriously! This is your tax money at work.

The real shocker was how many agents would come on board a few minutes later and hand the captain his tagged knife and not even notice what just happened. Only about one in five would do the forehead slap when they saw the captain. They would then sheepishly say, “Oh!”

One day he called me before a trip and asked me to bring a big knife, too. And the engineer. For the next three days security would take and tag all three and bring them to the cockpit. The reactions were always entertaining.

Just bored airline pilots having some fun. And poking fun at the stupidity of government.