'But You're A Woman'

Qantas chairman Margaret Jackson revealed at a Beijing Conference this week that she was briefly suspected of being a terrorist by a TSA screener during a visit last year to the United States.

That isn't all that unusual -- everyone from senators to four-year-old children have come under the watchful eye of airport security -- but the reason she was suspected is something different, and disturbing to anyone who believes we've come a long way since the days of "Leave It To Beaver."

See, Jackson is a woman -- which, according to the wunderkind who screened her baggage and found detailed plans of new aircraft, makes it hard to believe she is also chairman of a major international airline.

"The guy said 'Why have you got all of this?'," Jackson told the conference, speaking of the screener's discovery of seating diagrams in her baggage. "And I said, 'I'm the chairman of an airline, I'm the chairman of Qantas'. "And this black guy, who was like eight foot tall, said, 'but you're a woman.'"

Jackson finally proved her identity to the guard... in part, by writing a note to him on her Qantas letterhead stating "Dear Bill, this is from the chairman of Qantas, who is a woman."

The Qantas chairman related the tale after a Chinese journalist  complained that airport security at Australian airports was the most difficult around... after the US.

Jackson was in Beijing to promote Qantas' resumed service to the Chinese city, after pulling out of the market in the late 1990s due to low demand. That is no longer an issue, as tourism and business links should more than fill the seats on the airline's three flights per week between Sydney and Beijing.

FMI: www.qantas.com