KWQC 6 News Article

"Federal officials say errors by screeners -- not random computer glitches -- are to blame for a recent evacuation at Chicago's Midway Airport.

The confusion that led to the November 15th evacuation was prompted by a hand grenade appearing on an X-ray scanner.

T-S-A officials say the grenade was not real, but generated by a computer program used to test screeners.

Spokeswoman Amy von Walter says the image should have been stored in a computer file by a security agency staff member. The agency initially blamed a software malfunction."

And the person(s) responsible was... fired? Required to compensate all those who were inconvenienced by his/her negligence? Required to reimburse the city of Chicago for the emergency personnel who had to respond to this stupidity? Anything? Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?

That report is really ambiguous. I dont how they are laying out the blame here. Are they saying that the x-ray operator should have hit the save button on the x-ray at the time the image was seen? That does nothing to change things. I have had this error happen to me and there is nothing that the operator can do to mitigate it.

I have no idea what the spokesperson is talking about. That is quite confusing. What she is suggesting wouldn't resolve anything. I have a good feeling what probably happened.

It's no secret. For more info:
http://www.bombdetection.com/tip.shtml

Threat Image Projection is an evaluation tool that projects images of prohibited items into bags. Screeners do have the ability to recall images that were used, for training purposes, and have them displayed on the monitor. What can happen is that there is a shift change or rotation and the next person operating the x-ray has no idea that the previous screener recalled that image. First thing that happens is they attempt to get the bag checked. Belt moves forward...no bag on the belt. Holy Crap (you know which word would best fit there!) ! Someone has a gun in the sterile area!

What happens is a screener uses poor judgement and poor timing when recalling these images. I believe that there is no software or hardware malfunctions when this occurs...purely screener error. The issue is being addressed within TSA as I have received several memos from my FSD and TSA HQ regarding this. Given what can occur as a result of these practices, I'm sure it will be corrected very quickly. I have no idea what happens to the screeners responsible.

So last week, when the TSA blamed software for the evacuations of MDW, MIA and IAD, the TSA was lying?

Here's the discussion from last week of the TSA's deceptive explanation for the evacuations:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...ghlight=knives

Please keep in mind, this is purely my opinion on what happened. I have no facts to back up what I have said.