You would think that during the course of the hour when they isolated the little girl from her mother, intimidated her with talk of being contaminated by bomb residue , stood around jacking their jaws - you would think that perhaps someone would have decided to immediately change gloves, test the gloves, then re-swab the little girl's hands.
You would also think that during that hour of jawing and acting stupid and intimidating, they would have had time to conduct a thorough patdown of the child and an inspection of the wheelchair.
What happened? Someone misplace the SOP? Everyone forget their training? No one at this 'little' airport ever had a positive swab before?
to the ignorant (if well-intentioned) by-standers who though it would be better to whisk her off to a private room. Do they really think that would have made the situation better for the mother and little girl? Or even more threatening?
The TSA responded to questions about the encounter with a statement that said in part, "TSA's mission is to safely, efficiently and respectfully screen nearly two million passengers each day at airports nationwide. We are sensitive to the concerns of passengers who were not satisfied with their screening experience and we invite those individuals to provide feedback to TSA through a variety of channels."
I don't understand how anyone with an ounce of self respect can work for this agency.
Can anyone clarify what the response to the false alarm should have been? What does TSA usually do after their ridiculous testing equipment tells them explosives residue is present? Can someone hazard a guess about why there was no followup done here - just an hour of humiliation and then letting the girl board her plane?
Can anyone clarify what the response to the false alarm should have been? What does TSA usually do after their ridiculous testing equipment tells them explosives residue is present? Can someone hazard a guess about why there was no followup done here - just an hour of humiliation and then letting the girl board her plane?
(somebody has to say it
"That's SSI".
Seriously, she's probably actually lucky they didn't deny her access to the sterile area and tell her to come back the next day. That has happened before (PHX, woman in bra and underwear in a wheelchair who supposedly 'failed' the test; resolution grope failed to 'clear' her, so she was told to leave and come back the next day and try again).
Maybe Blogger Bob and his cohorts will spin this by saying that follow-up to 'positive' tests has to be unpredictable to throw the bad guys off their game. That's not much comfort to the innocent victims of false positives, but it is a standard TSA cop-out.
Or maybe he'll admit that they don't have a clue what they were doing, but they let her go because they knew if there really was a problem, one of the 20 other 'layers' would catch it.
So what happened? She didn't have a explosives. She was very uncomfortable with TSA. She never carry a explosives. She didn't have a threat. She is very lucky that she didn't carry a explosives. They didn't shutdown the entire concourse.
Forced separation of a minor child from a custodial parent ought to be disallowed absent legal grounds to separate the child from the parent and take one or the other into custody under the standards that allow law enforcement personnel in the US to make an arrest.
This kind of ridiculous stuff at US airports nowadays -- and yes I've personally seen this kind of stuff happen with minor children at US airports big and small since the TSA came on the scene and started up their dog and pony clown shows -- never came to my attention before the fall of 2001 with the TSA.
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Like TSA, DL SkyMiles management treats airline customers as if they are the enemy or sheep to be fleeced and it shows.
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You would also think that during that hour of jawing and acting stupid and intimidating, they would have had time to conduct a thorough patdown of the child and an inspection of the wheelchair.
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They're not supposed to be molesting little kids anymore. That and the crowd reaction probably made them reluctant. That and the fact these clerks know it's a 100% useless test.
for the record, no, they shouldn't have felt this kid up.
You would think that during the course of the hour when they isolated the little girl from her mother, intimidated her with talk of being contaminated by bomb residue , stood around jacking their jaws - you would think that perhaps someone would have decided to immediately change gloves, test the gloves, then re-swab the little girl's hands.
You would also think that during that hour of jawing and acting stupid and intimidating, they would have had time to conduct a thorough patdown of the child and an inspection of the wheelchair.
What happened? Someone misplace the SOP? Everyone forget their training? No one at this 'little' airport ever had a positive swab before?
to the ignorant (if well-intentioned) by-standers who though it would be better to whisk her off to a private room. Do they really think that would have made the situation better for the mother and little girl? Or even more threatening?
I think you got the "private room" thing wrong. I think Mom was told she would have to go to a private room and Mom questioned that. I did not get the impression that the other passengers suggested that action.
I do think the comments of the other passengers led to the conclusion of the episode. TSA didn't want a riot on its hands.
