SMF Security Employee Forgets To Plug Metal Detector in Wall - Terminal Evacuated
 

http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/s...-1528884c.html

800 evacuated at airport over detector glitch
By Ted Bell -- Bee Staff Writer

About 800 travelers were evacuated from Sacramento International Airport's Terminal A on Friday morning because a metal detector became unplugged and nobody noticed.

The terminal was cleared at 6:10 a.m. when someone associated with Olympic Security Systems saw that the detector was unplugged but had no way of knowing for how long and how many people had passed through the nonfunctioning system, said airport spokeswoman Cheryl Demetriff.

Everyone in the terminal who had been screened since the system went on at 5 a.m. was evacuated, as were the passengers who had boarded two airliners waiting for takeoff.

AMAZING... perhaps we now need battery backups in the system... Wonder if they made everyone who was already in the air return to the ground.

Anyone else not feeling any safer?

William

not again..... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

Why didn't the person who noticed the system was unplugged just plug it in and say nothing?

Cause that'd be making things worse.

A simple mistake is one thing.

Making a mistake and attempting to cover it up is a whole different thing.

I'm sure glad the gov is going to waive the high school requirement for the new Federal screeners...that should help us all out a lot....

Wonder if it's been unplugged for a few days. I guess it really doesn't matter sometimes.

Actually, it is part of a new, not-yet-public, security directive that mandates random unplugging of the machines.

what a good thing they acted in the way that they did...after all, you never know who might have tried to sneak a pair of tweezers or a nail clipper on board.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

This seems like as good a place as any to voice this. Why all the cynicism about the security screeners? Yes, we know that a) they don't make travelling any easier, and b) they're not always the brightest young lads on earth, but they really are there to act in the best interests of you, the traveller. Constantly bashing them, sometimes even to their faces (as people have claimed to do on here a few times) is not going to help them do their jobs, and it will just make them bitter and demoralized. And that will only cause more problems. I'm sorry to sound preachy, but the words, and even moreso, the actions, of some people on these boards, are simply self-defeating, and really do lack common sense. Just my .02.

Because there's a difference between doing your job and THINKING and doing your job. Most of these screeners are NOT THINKING.

I would like to see class-action lawsuits against screeners and "security" companies when they cause a terminal evacuation/other serious delay due to incompetence/negligence. After all, if they can try to collect civil damages against that fool who closed down ATL by running through security, shouldn't we be able to collect civil damages from pinheads who delay us with due to stupidity, too?

------------------
"Those who would sacrifice liberty for safety deserve neither." - Ben Franklin

I agree with Spiff, many of the screeners are not thinking and I shudder to think that many will soon be on the federal payroll. I have had a paper clip confiscated after the screener told me with a straight face that I could unbend it and use it as a weapon. Really? Then my desk drawer is a veritable arms cache. Another took a sewing kit, explaining that I could not have "string". Hmmm... Assuming string was a barred item (what about shoelaces) isn't there a difference between string and thread? Even the air marshall that I sat next to on that very flight shook her head in disgust when I told her about it.

In short, the people that the folks on FT are railing about are the ones that deserve to be fired. I know that there are good screeners out there, but many right now would have a hard time holding down a job anywhere. When I run into this type of screener, I definitely do not feel safer, just more hassled.

CWPFLY

terradevil,

Your faith in the goodness of your fellow man is admirable. Unfortunately, it's misplaced. Many -- not all! -- of these "security" screeners are engaging in class warfare, plain and simple.

Many of the screeners resent the generally more successful population of air travelers that they encounter every day and demonstrate their resentment in the ways that so many of us have described. Confiscating nail clippers from successful business-people is great fun if you are a minimum-wage, uneducated, unskilled person who never gets to fly because you are too poor. It's even more fun if the business-people object! Then you get to show them who's boss.

Anyone who believes that these people are "just trying to do their jobs" is dreaming. There's a lot more than that going on.

Bruce

i suppose that i have simply been lucky, as i have yet to encounter any of the above examples. in my travels, the security screeners have been typically personable, although by no means cordial, and i haven't really witnessed any gross acts of stupidity. in a few cases, i was dissappointed, as they seemed to be simply going through the motions. in the examples you all mention, these people obviously need to start taking their jobs, rather than themselves, more seriously.

crankyusi: Please contact me on my email, or if someone can get a message to him to contact me. Thx.

I wonder how long it took or if any of the screeners realized the "beeping" had stopped. I've never been in a line where more than one or two people go through and the beeper didn't go off.

CF