Scanning luggage, purses, bags?

We arrived and picked up our luggage on Tuesday from the jet blue flight from jfk. It took close to hr and half to get bags scanned before we could leave anrrival building. American there first so was packed with people and bags trying to get thru funnel doorway to the 1 scanner. Why scan again in SXM after they have been scanned when leaving USA airports??? It was hot and so crowded. Glad no one yelled fire.

They seem to do this randomly. Two years ago the line for the scanner was unbelievable but they stopped scanning eventually and everyone just passed through. Someone in line said it's common when a Copa flight arrives but not sure if that was accurate or not.

We came on the 7 am flight from JFK and there was no scanning.
It was a little confusing with the buses and all, but not bad.

Funny. I did notice a Copa jet. It was really awful. We rented from Lesley with Kenny’s car rental as we have for decades, and he had to wait and wait for us. It was so unnecessary to do that to so many people. And they were picking out people to go to the head of the crowd. There was just no reason to put us all thru that. Those 2 flights were from USA.

They were looking for drugs, or other contraband. Either there was a tip that someone was bringing in something illegal, or, could be because they always do it when Copa is in. Since they were scanning stuff, anyone carrying illegal stuff would probably just opt to dump it somewhere, either in the terminal somewhere or somehow stuff it in someone ELSE's luggage.

Wow. That was pretty terrible for all those hundreds of people. Oh well. Over with and was so curious as to why. Thanks!

Glad they are doing it. Might help to keep some of the illegal contraband out of country like drugs and guns.

Yes...you are right, but NOW it is worse than when we went. They will eventually get it together. We go several times a year, so we KNOW the love we have for SXM. NO matter what obstacles there might be at the airport. After Irma, we had to go thru the private jet terminal and our luggage was brought on the back of a truck. But, we were sad that we made Lesley, Kenny's Car Rental, wait so long for us to get out! By the way, I think the YouTube videos of the airports new arrival area are funny and informative, but it was still really a mess.

Getting better now , thanks.