Hi Robb,you're already giving them the your interpretation of what you took their letter to mean. Don't! There's no need to reiterate, they know what they have written (or at least they should).I would suggest a more factual wording, such as:Dear (Author of letter to you),thank you for your letter dated xx.xx.xx, the contents of which have been noted.It would appear that you have failed to enclose with your last correspondence the film that was confiscated by your staff during the incident in question. May I therefore ask that this film be returned to me at your earliest convenience.Your cooperation would be greatly appreciated.Yours sincerely,RobbRemember, you want to get more information FROM them than you're giving TO them, otherwise they'll jump ahead of you. In your draft letter, you quite unneccessarily state that they have acknowledged not to have an established policy with regards to photography of their airplanes. Once Delta reads that, they can quite quickly close that loophole by saying 'Well, we don't have a policy that prohibits taking pictures of our planes as such, but tighter rules can be formulated by our gate staff as the situation warrants in the staff's judgment - and sorry, we don't have your film anymore'. This would not be good - and if you're wording the letter differently, basically stating that you expected the film to be returned with their original reply, they don't really know which way you'll be going once you get a negative reply...Cheers,Gosta.http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/images/wxrebeta.jpg

Thanks Gosta! You are merciless.. LOL!That's a great response which will be going out in the mail today.I'll keep you posted.Robb

Hi Gosta,I received a reply from Delta Airlines based on the letter I sent to them from your recommendations. Here is how they replied.April 30, 2003Dear Sir,Thank you for your recent reply to my previous response concerning your confiscated film.Currently, we do not have a system in place to access confiscated merchandise. Once passenger merchandise has been confiscated, we do not retain nor store the merchandise on site. Unfortunately, we are unable to return any confiscated items.We thank you and look forward to serving you under better conditions.Sincerely,James SmithManager Customer CareJDS:jdxWhat do you think Gosta?Thanks, Robb

Hi Robb,that's interesting. Especially this bit: "Once passenger merchandise has been confiscated, we do not retain nor store the merchandise on site." Here they state that they don't store confiscated items 'on site', implying they're stored elsewhere. The question is where, and why can't the film be retrieved from there? OK, I think we can assume that the phrase 'on site' is superflous and your film resides at the local garbage dump (adding unneccessary words is an annoying habit a lot of people get into when trying to sound 'official').Now the question is whether Delta incurs a liability with regards to items confiscated not in accordance with pre-published policies. I'll have to check into that, especially with regards to US law. I assume your flight was a domestic flight within the States? (Are there any international flights from DCA, except to Canada?).I'll let you know what I find out.Cheers,Gosta. http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/images/wxrebeta.jpg

I just finished reading all the post. So, did you ever hear back from Delta. I hope you got compensated in some way for their unprofessional manner.

Hi Gosta,I was flying from DCA to ATL on that date. I don't believe that there are any international flights coming into or out of DCA. The international flights fly in and out of Washington Dullis about 30 miles away. I always include my frequent flyer number at the end of the letter as a hint to them. It's great to be able to harass the airlines for a change.Thanks Gosta,Robb

Delta replied twice. The first time, they stated that I did not do anything wrong and kind of "sorry about that." I wrote again asking for the film bacl to see how they would reply, and they said that they did not keep confiscated items. I always include my frequent flyer number as a reminder, but nothing yet!Thanks,Robb

With all this "picture taking" going on, I thought I'd share MY little experience:I live in Ft. Myers, FL (not exactly the center of civilization) which has a bustling little airport (25 million served so far this year). I used to be able to sit in the parking lot at the airport fire station and get some great views of the takeoffs/landings up until 9/11.Recently, I found a nice little spot in the parking lot of the local FBO with a pretty good view, and would take my lunches there often. One day, the manager came up to me and asked me not to stop by any more. Apparently, there was an FAA conference that said that terrorists were sitting in FBO parking lots taking pictures of aircraft operations, and everyone thought something bad was going to happen. He was really nice about it, and I understand with all the CRAP going on in the world these days that everyone is paranoid. It's his right as the manager of that establishment, but it's sad that no one can even park and watch any more for fear that "terrorists" are going to take some pictures of airplanes.Geez...Rob D.Ft. Myers, FL

Once again, I don't think a manager or anybody can tell you not to take pictures on public property. So, it is not his right. Delta Airlines wrote me back saying that they have no regulation prohibiting photographing of their aircraft. They essentially said that the Delta supervisor was wrong. However, they did not offer to return my film nor compensate me for the film. I had the whole terminal watching me be harassed by the Delta employee. I felt like a criminal as she held out her hand demanding my film. I had a lot of personal pictures on it from the trip I had just taken and thought I would snap a few of the plane I was about to get on. But oh well. I guess they got one up on me. Just be careful, but know your rights.Robb

Well in total honesty I do not see what is wrong with taking exterior photos of planes! After all, you can get photos of planes legaly from websites so why can't you take them yourself. I could see a problem if it was the cockpit but not the bloody outside!

> >...state of permanent warfare (how can you erradicate terrorism? How will...>Doubtful any conflict will ever rid us of it. Restructured foreign policy might do the trick. Common sense might lead one to believe it's the root of the whole problem. But then again, I'm not a politician (So what do I know?) and I don't believe common sense factors heavily in the operation of the Fed anyway. Too bad for us common folk, eh?;)

I'm thinking that maybe they resolved this issue back in May 2003 when this thread was last active... (?)Bob

No, Delta never did compensate me for the film nor did they admit wrong doing.Robb