Saw on the news that security at 3 terminals at LAX this morning were shutdown. Apparently, a woman had a large liquid bottle. A screener left her to get a supervisor to further screen the bottle, but the woman left. They suspended screening 3 terminals, found the woman, and rescreened her. She wasn't a threat. Imagine that!

EDIT: just found an article: http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/...031710.article

Since when does a medication have "an allowable amount" (per the article)?

Incredible morons!!!

There was absolutely no reason to dump the terminal.

I don't think the terminals were dumped, just a closure of the Freedom Stations for a while:

"Security screening at three terminals was suspended until the woman was found, although the terminals remained open." -- Chicaco Sun-Times article linked above

Regardless, idiots.

"a woman in a wheelchair" Holy $! This is the best line in the whole story!

Idiodic behavior on multiple levels.

"Um, your medication isn't allowed"
"yes it is"
"Wait here while I ask someone with slightly more knowledge of SOP."
"Whatever"...oh yea, since I know your policy better than you, and I know that you aren't authorized to detain me...rolls away.
Hmm. The lady who wanted to take her medication, which I've now learned is ok to take through security has left. What should I do now?
A) inconvenience hundreds (thousands?) and lock down three terminal access points or;
B) connect the dots that, since I was going to let her go anyways, her departure means nothing, so I don't have to do anything

At top of lungs... "BRAVO"

idiots.....

When speaking of TSA your stating the obvious.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lano...lse-alarm.html

"The woman apparently thought the medication had been confiscated and left the screening area, he said."

The woman was being screened when she left the area briefly, leaving a bottle of medication behind, Lowe said. This caused some concern among security officials, and a search for the woman was launched.

"The passenger was quickly located, re-screened and allowed to continue onto her flight," Lowe said. "There were no delays to flights or impact to operations."

So a woman in a wheelchair outran the security people and caused them to shut down all the screening at 6/7 for 26 minutes? Why did they have to stop screening everybody else? How impossibly hard was it to find her? If they screened her and she left the liquid behind, who cares?

It just gets funnier and funnier each day.

Okay, now this all makes sense. I was at LAX T7 this morning during this time.

About 5:25 this morning, while walking from the Red Carpet Club to my gate, a single TSAer was running through T7 checking frantically in gate areas, but apparently did not find what she was looking for.

Our flight was delayed by about 15 minutes, as the purser apologized for the delay, saying there was "some sort of security breach" and that passengers were a little late getting through the checkpoint. They held the plane for those folks (which surprised me a bit).

When I heard "security breach" I thought we were going to be re-screened, but we weren't.

While I see no logical reason whatsoever to cease screening and basically close the checkpoints for any duration, I will give the TSA credit for not dumping all the terminals, closing the checkpoints for three hours, calling back departing planes from the taxiways and runways and re-screening every passenger.

That does represent a marginal improvement in the idiots' (the dimwits in charge, not low-level screeners) thought processes.

Maybe in another decade or two the brain trust at the TSA (face it, it ain't ever goin' away) might just go look for the wheelchair-bound passenger instead of closing the checkpoints.

And sometime around 2110 maybe they'll figure out that someone leaving the checkpoint with something they were going to be permitted to take anyway requires no action whatsoever but that is probably giving TSA too much credit.

If she was in a wheel chair,and at the main checkpoint at 7 she'd have to use the elevator to get to the gates. There are 2 elevators, one by the bridge which is outside the checkpoint and one behind the main screening. How could they lose her? The mind is boggled.

Right!!!!!!!! TSA will get disciplinary actions against TSA officers is not appropriate to cause evacuated off the terminals. It should have to leave her alone and she has already being search at the secondary screening. TSA wasn't aware of woman didn't leave behind at security.

sure they should have Spiff......

or in f/t speak, the tsa screwed the pooch yet again

but glory be, they actually found this person (maybe it's cuz the person was in a wheelchair?)

now on second thought, Spiff is right....morons to the highest degree.

strike 1: prescription meds: no limits if declared to the tso
strike 2: letting the evil person in a wheelchair get away during the screening process

You're right. I started to correct it and I missed that one.

News was making it sound like a terminal dump, but appears it wasn't. I'll correct that now.