90% Screener Failure Rate? TSA Says That's Great
 

Aviation Planning Article

The Sounds of Silence

"But not a word from Kip Hawley. Not a comment from the usual hacks at Washington alphabet groups who supposedly are on the job to represent airport interests, at least one of which is busy raking in the dough selling services to the TSA. Not a peep from Senator Lautenberg. Congressmen Mica and DeFazio: sorry, no comment.

Let's stop the charade: aviation security is comfortably back to pre-9/11 status. Screening is a raging failure, but, well, that's no big deal. Nothin's been hijacked, so everything is A-OK.

Of course, we can always rely on the TSA at some level to come out with a Kafka-esque statement or two that succeeds in offending anyone with an IQ above the proof number on a bottle of Mad Dog 20-20. In this case, it was Mark Hatfield, the Federal Security Director at Newark, the guy under whose incompetent, inept direction this latest failure occurred...

"... Test results are not a grade or a scorecard; they are a road map to perpetual improvements; any other characterization is simply misleading."

Of course, he's right. It was only a 90% failure."

This agency is a complete failure. Congress should consider only two options:

1)A complete housecleaning in the TSA, starting with the arrest and prosecution of Comrade "Kip" Hawley for his criminal negligence and passenger contempt in the manner in which he has "run" the TSA. He is a security charlatan whose incompetence is exceeded only by his willingness to lie to the American people about his security "decisions". At the very least, he should be kicked down Capitol Hill and across the Potomac, never to be permitted back into aviation security. Each traveler harassed by this incompetent jackass could have a kick.

2)Disband the TSA. Federalizing airport security was the worst mistake Congress has ever made. Admit the mistake and correct it. Not such a hard task.

Airport security is still a joke from the way PAX are handled to cargo.
It's a horrible embarrassment that no one is addressing. I believe it's time to start over and create a new agency that really has the interest of the flying public in mind. Without logical safety and security, we the traveling public will continue to suffer.

The TSA is Al Qaeda's best ally.....

Welcome to FlyerTalk! :)

And vice versa. Without AQ, the TSA couldn't justify a multi-billions dollar budget. Symbiotic.

Mike Boyd strikes again!! Good for you, Mike ^ ^

Finally someone in the industry who is willing to call it like it is, and do it publically.

^ I like the sound of that

Thanks allot, I've been a long time reader but finally decided to post. I’m totally amazed at the behavior of the TSA. This isn't the first time this has happened at EWR. Last year the GAO found illegal’s working on the AOA at EWR and got fake bombs past the screeners there as well. I love reading the quotes from EWR's front man, they learn? BS they learn, they didn't learn last year they will never learn. Even Bush said the terrorists need only one chance to succeed; at EWR they had 20 chances to attack us.

...And at 90% failure that road map to perpetual improvements will look more like an atlas :) .

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I can't answer your question, but I am not surprised by the findings. 90% is a bit
high, but I still think the rate would be above 60-70% even if you did this
on a very large scale.

Bart is right about not extrapolating to all airports from the morons at EWR; after all, we know them to be the absolute scum at the bottom of the entire TSA cesspool there, so it's no surprise they failed so miserably whilst making travelers' lives so miserable. Their failures are not a sign that failures are epidemic across the whole system, although I think that particularly post-8/10, it would sure seem that the entire system is teetering on the brink of failure.

However, even if it was only 10 tests done, and they failed 9 of them, that is atrocious and utterly reprehensible. The TSA is spending billions, charging us a $2.50 per segment "security" fee (and always asking for more), and they STILL can't do better than 9%? (the article did note they failed "more than 90% of the time, so the best they could have done was 9%!!!) I mean, even failing 30% of the time is unacceptable IMHO; failing even 10% of the time is not acceptable in terms of security. Yet these goons can't even succeed 10% of the time?!!!! :td: :mad:

This is not the first report of test failures (although certainly the worst failure margin reported so far, but I expected nothing more from EWR). We have been reading about these results from various airports for years. Tests have been conducted by independent media, the GAO and other auditing groups and failures abound - there has been no quantifiable improvement in screening effectiveness by the TSA when compared to the private screeners they replaced. That conclusion has been drawn over and over again.

There is another thread on this subject floating around here someplace on this situation. The report in the other thread was EWR screeners failed 20 out of 22 times, which is more like 91% failure. I'm sure they stopped 100% of liquids that looked uncomfortable in their freedom bags. :rolleyes:

Things will never improve at EWR. Too much indifference, screaming and yelling, and overall lack of politeness from airline personell, TSA, merchants, and passengers.

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