One of my fellow coworkers (airline employee) was traveling back Wed from a midwestern airport and advised me that he observed an illegal item pass thru TSA because they were to busy making sure he took his shoes off. Now before some one asks what the item was i don't know he said he would rather not say.

I hate to one up you, but I've got a pretty good story along those lines.

We had a TSO operating the x-ray let a full size air-soft rifle go through, that looked exactly like the weapon. He didn't even stop the x-ray, nor did he even check it make sure what the hell was going on. The guy goes through, and someone notices it on the way to the gate. The guy was 16 or so, traveling with his family, and they were pissed because they had made it through security and now had to go back and check it or surrender it. The guy was probably running the x-ray while texting on his phone, which is quite common at MCO with the younger crowd.

The best part, we got a briefing in training about all this, get to see the x-ray photos etc, and how it's "everyone's fault" on the lane if that happened, and how we would all get reprimanded if something similar happened while working on a lane. The whole "team" would be at fault. They even fabricated how the guy had a wife and kids and how he would jeopardize his life/career because of this mistake to make it seem all the more dire and how we should keep our guard up. (The guy is under 25, single, and a slacker) You can imagine the eye-rolls and cries of bull-.... in the back. They even admitted to us the person doing bag checks on the lane was stuck doing an assist. Can you imagine of getting reprimanded because your doing your job and the idiot they let stick around gets you in trouble? As you can expect, everyone's morale there dramatically improved after this.

The better part? The guy still works there.

i think you're right about the best part being that the guy still works there. no offense meant but it seems that the only way to get fired from the tsa in an example like yours would be if the screener took the rifle and went postal with it. but then again, maybe he wouldn't......get fired that is

I was doing a pretty good job narrowing it down until I got to "slacker". Now I've got nothing.

Iworkhere, Of course they say it's everyone's fault. That is the standard government bullmerde answer. With the US government when one person craps their pants, everyone has to wear diapers.


Ciao,
FH

Beatings continue, Komrade, until morale improves.

POST OF THE WEEK!!!!

Point well made. I recall years ago an incident occurred while working at JFK airport. One of the U.S. female officers mistakenly drove across an active runway while an airplane was coming in for a landing. The pilot had to abort the landing and increase altitude. I think it was snowing and the view was not clear plus she wore eyeglasses.

We were all given dates to attend a re-training class as to how to avoid this mishap in the future by the port authority. Whenever we came close to an airplane about to enter the runway area we had to yield right of way. But with trained eyes we would look up at the cockpit and observe if the captain gives a hand wave to let us go by. Another thing, we had to keep a good distance back from airplanes with engines running due to the gale forces they generated which would rock the vehicle as in a hurricane.

Those were the days when the FAA had a lot of clout and they would place a dummy gun in a briefcase on the x-ray belt to see if the person reading x-rays can detect it. What ever happened to the FAA, anyway? TSA seems to have made them defunct.

This is EXACTLY the kind of checks and balances that the TSA could use. I'd love to see a dedicated group of agents whose ONLY job is to test and evaluate screening war-games style, and who have the power to get people fired when they fail. It would keep TSA's people on their toes, and it would give the system some much-needed accountability!

They have the teams, but they don't fire the failures. They publicly laud them for "doing pretty well at detecting very hard to find" bomb components, and maybe send them back for more training, but not likely.

That team would have to be from an agency separate from DHS. GAO did spot checks once but I don't think they do them enough. Let FAA inspectors do them, and let them decertify people (or entire airports) that fail. Give them an incentive to make life difficult for TSA (take away the FSD's bonus or something) -- that's the only way security will improve. Unfortunately, it would negatively impact passengers.

And this is a big problem with the TSA.

You fail on a bomb-detection test (or if you bring a gun to work), and you're okay.

You pocket eight cents or drink a confiscated beverage, you get fired.

All of this is going to be looked at and met with disbelief if and when something falls out of the sky.

Without knowing what the item was that your friend would rather not say, you can't actually say that it was an illegal item. Many people still think that scissors, lighters, cigar cutters, nail clippers, tweezers, butter knives, rolling pins, bowling balls, and ice skates are prohibited items, but they are not. Did you friend go thru the Employee Check Point? (I am also wondering if this was the same friend that you PM'd me about that was travelling thru my airport). The rules for employees at the employee checkpoint are different than the rules at a passenger checkpoint. There are exemptions made for Crew members travelling in uniform. The liquid policy does not apply to them at all, nor do they have to take off there shoes. There are other exemptions also for other situations. It would be nice to know what he saw that he would rather not say, that way we can either explain why it happened, or be in awe of its stupidity also.