Originally Posted by AgtMulder
As I got close to the WTMD our lane was suddenly shifted over to the next lane. Several TSA agents came out of nowhere and blocked off the area on the other side of the checkpoint by my old lane. The police were requested and responded quickly. All of the folks who just cleared the WTMD were matched to their bags and one couple was detained. Their bag was resent through the WTMD so the police could observe it.
Now, at this time I was close enough where I could see the screen on the x-ray clearly as the suspect bag passed through. It clearly contained five or six large knives, plain as day. The police removed the objects from the bag as the couple watched and they were all escorted over to the desk the local TSA manager and police have at the checkpoint. I do not know what happened next, because I left to catch my flight.
Anyway, this was all handled very quickly (less than 5 minutes), quietly, and efficiently. The folks in the other lanes who did not get shifted probably did not even realize what happened. The quick response of SLC TSA and police probably saved a terminal dump from occuring since they ensured that nobody from that lane left the checkpoint until the whole situation was resolved.
Kudos to SLC TSA on this one.
1) They caught a threatening object: large knives constitute a credible threat to aircraft passengers.
2) They didn't shut down the entire checkpoint and/or shut it down for long periods of time.
3) They caught it when it was still on the conveyer belt, not 5 minutes later causing a terminal dump.
Hopefully the police and TSA did a good job figuring out what was going on and metered out some appropriate punishment. (Even an anti-fine person like myself wouldn't see a problem with a nice little fine for someone dumb enough to bring a large set of chef's or larger knives through a checkpoint.)
Nice to hear a story of the system working. ^
Any sort of reward for the astute x-ray operator? I chatted with an 80+ year-old former private screener a few years back in an airport, and he said the x-ray operators used to get some sort of (minor) reward for catching prohibited objects on the screen. Helped to break the monotony.