No passengers are allowed off of planes.

At least that was the excuse my boss gave for being late....

Why don't we call them "fire drills"? "Security breach" almost makes them sound serious.

Yawn!

A passenger with two hunting knives in his carry-on luggage temporarily shut down security operations and held up flight operations for about a half hour this morning at Orlando International Airport.

An officer for the Transportation Security Administration noticed the knives on the x-ray image as the bag was being scanned and called to have the bag searched by hand. Before the extra search could be done, though, the passenger took off with the bag. At that point the operations in east part of the terminal froze, said TSA spokeswoman Sari Koshetz.

Koshetz said TSA officials reviewed a surveillance tape to be sure of the identity of the passenger and shut down gates 60-129 to look for him. He was detained and questioned by police, but no charges were filed.

The east checkpoint was reopened by shortly after 8:30 a.m.


http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/bus...ger_with_.html

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald...y/16411137.htm

Man gets through Orlando airport security with knives

ORLANDO - (AP) -- A retired man inadvertently passed through security at Orlando International Airport with two hunting knives in his carry-on luggage today, but no one was hurt and he was not deemed a threat.

Some security gates were shut down for about half an hour in the morning so investigators could locate the man, although no flight delays were reported.

A screener noticed something in the man's bag and called for another agent to search it. But before that happened, the man took the bag and entered the secure area, said Sari Koshetz, a Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman.

No charges were expected to be filed, and the man had no criminal history.

''Sometimes these things happen,'' said Kevin Farrington, a spokesman for the FBI, which interviewed the man. ``People just have untimely lapses in judgment or they simply forget when they have things on their person.''

Koshetz said the incident would be reviewed to make sure proper procedures were handled.

''We did observe [the knives] in the system correctly and were going to search his bag,'' she said. ``Obviously we take any situation like this very seriously, and we will certainly look into it to prevent it from happening ever again.''

Video here: http://mfile.akamai.com/12890/wmv/vo...96272.200k.asx

I agree with Mr. Farrington, but if the TSA is going to demand that people who make written objections to their screening or the decision-makers be arrested, then people who break federal regulations by bringing prohibited items into a secure area and fail to be screened should be arrested and charged. A crime has been committed under 49 USC 46503. The screeners were unable to perform their duties due to the interference of this man.