Loaded Gun Slips Past TSA
I’m not really worried about mistakes like this. Sure, a gun slips through occasionally, and a knife slips through even more often. (I’m sure the TSA doesn’t catch 100% of all bombs in tests, either.) But these items are caught by the TSA often enough, and when the TSA does catch someone, they’re going to call the police and totally ruin his day. A terrorist can’t build a plot around succeeding.
It’s things like liquids that are the real problem. Because there are no consequences to trying—the bottle of water just gets thrown into the trash—a terrorist can repeatedly try until he succeeds in slipping it through.
I asked then-TSA Administrator Kip Hawley about this in 2007. He didn’t answer.
AlanS • January 14, 2011 11:32 AM
He answers the question; it just isn’t very convincing:
“…we have begun using hand-held devices that can recognize threat liquids through factory-sealed containers (we will increase their number through the rest of the year) and we have different test strips that are effective when a bottle is opened. Right now, we’re using them on exempt items like medicines, as well as undeclared liquids TSOs find in bags. This will help close the vulnerability and strengthen the deterrent.”
And based on what he says immediately before this quote, he seems to be suggest that they give you a bad day if they get a positive in just the same way as they would if you had a gun or a knife.
However, everything he says seems to boil down magical technologies that are impractical to implement. So the bottle of liquid just gets thrown into the trash.