Originally Posted by Spiff
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An airline mainframe computer at the airport was down most of the day, forcing US Airways to check in customers using pens and paper. That slowed lines to a crawl at ticket counters. But the biggest delays came as travelers waited to clear security checkpoints.
Because ticket agents couldn't run passenger names through the computerized "no-fly" list of possible terrorists, most travelers were subjected to secondary screening - either inspection with a metal-detecting wand or a body pat-down."
So a bunch of US employees worked their butts off and made the best of the situation by using a backup system (pen/paper) ^ and then the TSA totally drops the ball by deciding to SSSS everyone with the manual BP.
Why couldn't they just randomly SSSS the same fraction of travelers that normally get randomly SSSS'd?
Whoever was in charge (does the FSD make this sort of call?) really screwed up here. This policy smacks of typical TSA policy of risk avoidance instead of risk management. Hopefully every one of those pax whose flight was delayed due to TSA and missed a connection/meeting due to TSA fills out a complaint form and complains to their congressman.
Side note: I wonder how much $ someone could have made with a laptop, cellular/wireless internet connection, and portable printer, if they set up shop and charged people $2 to do web checkin (which was apparently still working).
