Candy shuts down checkpoint
 

http://www.woodtv.com/dpp/news/local...-airport-alarm

The bag of one person going through the checkpoint contained some candy and also a suspicious-looking iPod.

Oh dear... An iPod. How does an iPod look suspicious?

Another plot foiled by the TSA.

And read the following comment by a passenger who claims to have been at the checkpoint when this unfolded.

Oh, mama! :D

:td::mad:Stupid is as stupid does.

Not surprised it was GRR
 

For much of the year, Delta's website had a prominent notice warning travelers about incompetent TSA security at GRR:Here's a thread in the Delta forum: Long Check-In Requirements for . . . GRR!?!?

One has to love the TSA mentality and the logic they use.

TSA spokesman James Fotenos emailed the following statement to The Press regarding Wednesday's checkpoint closure:

Shortly after 12 p.m. EST at Gerald R Ford International Airport (GRR), a suspicious item alarmed during screening at the TSA security checkpoint in Concourse B. To ensure the safety of the traveling public, the checkpoint was temporarily closed and a perimeter was established. The item was cleared and normal screening operations resumed by 12:30 p.m. EST. There was no impact to flight operations and no delays incurred.

No flights were delayed. So what if we didn't let any of the passengers get to those flights, or tell the airlines what was going on so they could hold the flights, it's important that we did not delay any flights. For some reason though the load on those flights was quite light.

Really a terrorist bag of candy?

Doesn't AA (American Eagle?) deserve some blame here? Eight (8) checked-in passengers didn't board a 50-person commuter jet, yet the gate agent didn't bother to check with the TSA checkpoint to see if there was a holdup?

Idiots! The whole lot! They can't do anything right.

1. If it was a real explosive, and a threat, a 20-30 ft. "perimeter" doesn't mean jack.
2. An ipod and candy! That's what they consider suspicious? They're so busy looking for anything that isn't a bomb that a real one, not camouflaged, will slide right by them.
3. No delayed flights, because the flights left without their passengers!

I'd liken them to the Three Stooges, but Larry, Moe and Curly would happen in to things and fix them by dumb luck. I have no confidence that the TSA could do that much.

You would think that after over a century of flight they might just have procedures in place for this eventuality...

I put the blame on the passengers too, one of them should have run to the counter and said hey, can you call the gate and see if they can hold the planes, the TSA is not letting anybody through security because of the terrorist candy.

And of course the airline should have realized something was wrong when so many people checked in (and possible checked bags) and did not show up at the gate, somebody should have guessed there was a hold up someplace.

These "news" get amusing with a new twist each & every time with something different, as in "no kidding." :td:

The next headline to pop could be - "holiday traveler's carry-on items triggered another false alarm as it turned out to be a small box of Ferrero Rocher, hazelnut chocolates with creamy fillings" :rolleyes: wrapped in gold tin foils, apparently not "TSA certified as clear to fly .... " as being suspicious, LOL. :o

As for AA Gate Agent(s), don't they usually "page" the passengers via overhead PA's inside the terminal and near the boarding gate area - since they usually do a final headcount and sometimes re-seat some of the pax to better balance the plane's load. But had they done that & decided to hold the plane at the gate for a few extra minutes - it would ruin their on-time departure statistics .... :eek:

Meanwhile, the real would-be bad guys are singing & dancing in joy, realizing the terrorism impact of our security theater.

Ferrero however IS dangerous. In the US they don't sell the real version of Mon Chéri with alcohol - you get the substandard one with hazelnut paste. (Same with the Ferrero product Nutella - the US gets the substandard version)

I carried four boxes of the real stuff around with me for about a month last year, to various parts of the world. The last trip was from the US. Every single box was opened in my luggage, and one chocolate removed from each box.

:rolleyes:

Running away from the scene of a bomb treat, away from the area where the TSA told you to wait? That's a terrible idea. The TSA did not tell people that they were being held next to a bomb, so running away from the area would be a clear indication that you know about the threat and should be held for questioning.

The sad thing is I don't even know if this calls for a :D... so it's really a :mad: and :(.

Heck, I can even see how a paranoid TSA employee would consider a passenger pulling out a cell phone a threat (might be trying to remote-detonate the device). So no, without more info, I would not put blame on the passengers.

The whole rotten system is crafted so no mishap is anybody's fault. Air travelers are at the mercy of psychotic idiots. "Suspicious iPod".... ye Gods, what fools.

+1 perhaps it was mistaken as an iPod clone with a questionable battery? We all know that lots of them are produced & branded overseas, and, OMG, those might explode. :eek: Just a matter of time before we read about a full scale Hazmat mobilization response and Terminal Evacuation, etc. :D

BTW, the bucks stop where ?? Leadership and accountablility begin at the top, so ....

I don't blame on TSA screener and there is no evidence on ipods and candy is not an threats. They should be fired TSO or suspended from work for approximately 14 to 30 days without paying.

Good riddance to TSA at GRR!! :mad::mad::td:

It takes 30 minutes to clear a bag of candy and an iPod? Did they bring sniffer dogs in? Sheeeesh.

TSA has no leadership.

I hadn't thought about these possibilities, but you are, of course, correct. If I find myself in this situation, I'll still pull out the cell phone. Unless I'm in Denver, where there's a possibility that a TSO is carrying.

And they couldn't isolate the "threat" and let the passengers go on their merry ways?

I have no doubt that someone will soon be along to tell us that they have SSI about this incident and that it was a real threat. :rolleyes:

Mike

+1 on that, of course. :td: All the way to the occupier(s) & company at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW in DC. :rolleyes: Oopps, he's on vacation .... ;)

Sorry, my bad for saying run to the counter. I forget that some people here take everything totally literally.

One of the people waiting in line, not those who were told to wait in the area 20 feet away, should have slowly turned without making any sudden motions or loud noises, or reaching into their pockets, turned and walked at a normal pace back to the counter and asked they hold the planes because of the delay.

Though I also feel if a 20 minute delay at security will cause you to miss your flight, you are not getting to the airport early enough. The passenger with the candy though was able to make their flight.

Agreed, but a 20 minute closure doesn't necessarily mean a 20 minute delay. It sounds like they cleared away the line so that people had to queue up again. The person with the candy just had the 20 minute delay, but others had a 20 minute delay plus the line length, which could easily have been 30-40 minutes. That's a hour delay.

The flight was scheduled to leave at 12:35. The checkpoint was closed just after noon, which means that when they closed the checkpoint, she had not yet cleared security.

This woman who missed the flight and posting about it all over the place I feel did not leave enough time to get to the gate. I don't feel that getting to the checkpoint with less than 30 minutes to flight time is enough time, even without the candy bomb.

Even if she was the first person back in line once they started screening again at 12:30, she still would have missed the 12:35 flight.

This incident occurred at GRR.

Wonder if it was (gasp!) KinderEggs.

'Artfully concealed...toys!' Someone could have gotten hurt.

Too bad we don't know if the candy was confiscated, er, surrendered.

The TSA has no power to detain a passenger. You may not be allowed to proceed to your gate until they've determined the suspicious item is not a threat -- but you can certainly make a decision not to wait in an area designated by the TSA -- and walk away in the opposite direction.

Faced with such a situation, I'd depart the area and head back to the ticket counter if I really thought that I would miss a flight.

Actually, I have departed a screening checkpoint -- after screening had begun -- and returned to the Delta counter to be re-booked when the local "blue shirt" and I disagreed on the screening procedure at IND.

Delta was very understanding and re-booked me for a different flight and recommended / gave suggestions to enter another checkpoint in order to evade the same "blue shirt' again.

It worked -- and worked quite well.

As ralfp pointed out, leaving the checkpoint in this situation might not have been a great idea. TSA already assumes all pax are guilty of something. In this case, TSA might have assumed a pax leaving a checkpoint was involved with the candy. All TSA has to do to detain a pax is summon a LEO.

LAX keeps having some kind of exercise where everyone is told to freeze and not move until the all-clear is sounded. I don't know what would happen if someone kept on walking, but I suspect TSA would get LE involved.

Sounds like the infamous "Code Bravo" excercises, which have entire threads devoted to them here on FT. And some folks actually have walked away from them, with various results, but I haven't heard of anyone being arrested for continuing to walk through the terminal during a Bravo excercise.

I'd put that down to 20-20 hindsight. If they'd known when the checkpoint was first closed down that it was going to be 20 minutes, this would've made sense, but if they had the impression that it was going to reopen any minute now, they lose their place in line for nothing. (OT: I have the same problem with airlines that keep passengers at the gate for hours while repeatedly announcing that they'll start boarding in "just a few minutes".)
That, I agree with.
Maybe it was salt water taffy. Do you know how long it takes to eat a whole box of taffy test the evidence and then dispose of it? :p

Ooooh you're right! it IS after all the Christmas season. CBP goes on high alert at Christmas and Easter, targetting parcels from Germany in search of those highly dangeous eggs.

I wonder if someone had an egg in their carryon? Once they are confiscated, one is also subject to a fine and a $300 'storage' fee for the egg.

Überraschungseier - just more dangerous product courtesy of Ferrero!

And do you know how long it takes some people to build the toy inside the egg, and then play with test it to ensure that it isn't really a dangerous weapon?!

I've never had a Kinder Egg :( so this is just a random guess, but I'm going to say, umm, about 20 minutes?

Yeah, right; blame the passengers--or should I say SUSPECTED TERRORISTS??

I don't see it as "blame", but rather pointing out the fact that people missing their flights could have been avoided if the TSA, the airline, or passengers had taken actions. Since GRR is used by people in the airline industry (e.g., GE Avionics), I'm actually quite surprised this didn't happen. (Indeed, GRR had some unofficial use policies immediately post-9/11 based on this.)

The Grand Rapids Press: Holland native blames TSA for missed flight
 

An article by reporter Zane McMillin of the The Grand Rapids Press provides a lot more information about what happened. Here's the link:

The Grand Rapids Press:
Holland native blames TSA for missed flight after bag of candy closes Ford Airport checkpoint
Published: Wednesday, December 28, 2011, 8:20 PM
Updated: Wednesday, December 28, 2011, 11:04 PM

A short quote from the article, including quotes from an affected passenger that was willing to be quoted by name:

The Grand Rapids Press appears to have caught TSA spokesperson James Fontenos lying. From the article:

TSA spokesman did not return a call seeking comment on the matter. A call to the TSA's after-hours media pager went unreturned.

A Ford Airport communications representative said all after-hours inquiries into the matter should be referred to TSA officials.

Several hours after the checkpoint shut down, TSA spokesman James Fotenos sent The Press a statement that, in part, read: "There was no impact to flight operations and no delays incurred."

I'll conclude this post with a big ^ to reporter Zane McMillin for his work on that piece!

How was he lying? It's correct: there were no flight delays! The problem is that there should have been.

There was an impact to flight operations. The people who missed their flights had to be rebooked on other flights.

The passengers most certainly deserve part of the responsibility of missing their flights (assuming anybody but the one person did miss their flight, the only reports are what she said the airline told her, not confirmed by the airline). It was not totally out of their control to prevent this from happening. If they wanted to stand in the little pen listening to the airline paging them over and over again to board and did nothing about it that was their choice. It would not have been mine.

If they choose to arrive at security with only five or ten minutes to the start of boarding, that was their choice, it would not have been mine.

It is quite possible there was no outrage because only one person was affected by the delay because she showed up way too late.

Yes the TSA detected something in the candy that set off the alarm, and had to investigate it. Maybe it was legitimate, maybe it was not (there are some candy ingredients like ammonium chloride in licorice that could be mistaken for things the scanners are looking for), but that's not the point.

I'm not blaming the passengers. I'm saying they could have done things differently and quite possibly made their flights instead of just sitting there doing nothing. There were lots of things that could have been done differently to get the people on the 12:35 flight, by the TSA, by the airline, and by the passengers. They all share in the responsibility of those missing the flights.

Rebooking is not a flight operation.