TSA Security Round-Up
Innocent passenger arrested for trying to bring a rubber-band ball onto an airplane.
Woman passes out on plane after her drugs are confiscated.
San Francisco International Airport screeners were warned in advance of undercover test.
And a cartoon.
We have a serious problem in this country. The TSA operates above, and outside, the law. There’s no due process, no judicial review, no appeal.
EDITED TO ADD (11/21): And six Muslim imams removed from a plane by US Airways because…well because they’re Muslim and that scares people. After they were cleared by the authorities, US Airways refused to sell them a ticket. Refuse to be terrorized, people!
Note that US Airways is the culprit here, not the TSA.
EDITED TO ADD (11/22): Frozen spaghetti sauce confiscated:
You think this is silly, and it is, but a week ago my mother caused a small commotion at a checkpoint at Boston-Logan after screeners discovered a large container of homemade tomato sauce in her bag. What with the preponderance of spaghetti grenades and lasagna bombs, we can all be proud of their vigilance. And, as a liquid, tomato sauce is in clear violation of the Transportation Security Administration’s carry-on statutes. But this time, there was a wrinkle: The sauce was frozen.
No longer in its liquid state, the sauce had the guards in a scramble. According to my mother’s account, a supervisor was called over to help assess the situation. He spent several moments stroking his chin. “He struck me as the type of person who spent most of his life traveling with the circus,” says Mom, who never pulls a punch, “and was only vaguely familiar with the concept of refrigeration.” Nonetheless, drawing from his experiences in grade-school chemistry and at the TSA academy, he sized things up. “It’s not a liquid right now,” he observantly noted. “But it will be soon.”
In the end, the TSA did the right thing and let the woman on with her frozen food.
Crash • November 21, 2006 1:43 PM
That TSA never ceases to amaze. That advance warning thing is gnarly.
What does Paris’ taking the woman’s meds and giving them to her cabin crew have to do with the TSA?