bdschobel

Of course, her "good deed" got her arrested (but not charged)!

Brief item:

January 25, 2004
Woman Gets Past Security With Knife
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 2:00 p.m. ET

DENVER (AP) -- A woman passed through security screening at New York's LaGuardia Airport with a stun gun and knife in her purse -- but later discovered the mistake herself and alerted authorities.

The woman realized she was carrying the items after a short layover in Detroit and on her way to Denver.

"She immediately went, 'Oh, my God, I'm not supposed to have these here,' and called the flight attendant over," said Spirit Airlines spokeswoman Laura Bennett.

The pilot alerted Denver International Airport; police met the plane at the gate and took the woman into custody for questioning. She was released without charges.

"She did the right thing by giving up the items voluntarily, and she was never malicious," Bennett said. "We never considered her a threat."

Transportation Security Administration officials had no comment on the security slip. TSA official Darrin Kayser said the agency would investigate.

"It was an honest but odd mistake," Bennett said. "But it's true that people often don't think about what's in their luggage."

ejward2000

Just another example how ineffective the federal screeners are in preventing items from getting on the plane. This time it was a stun gun and a knife. The TSA needs to get proactive and replace the screeners responsible. Right now the TSA employees need to be alerted to the fact that the job is serious and failure to detect an item is not an option.

NoStressHere

This, like so many other examples points out that our current process is:
1) Costing billion$$$
2) Taking away liberties from innocent people
3) Continuing to damage the airline business
4) Which in turn damages the economy
5) Stresses people out (yes me too)

and DOES NOT MAKE US ANY SAFER.

When will we learn how foolish we are?

IndustrialPatent

taken ino custody and arrested is two different things.

and this woman is stupid. she could of just kept her mouth shut.

UALOneKPlus

This woman needs to be arrested and put in prison for at least 6 months.

My gosh, she can't trust herself to keep the items safe in her bag and fly without making a ruckus to her destination?

How silly this whole thing seems.

Boraxo

Let's address each of these specious points in turn:

(1) The cost of a plane smashing into the ground is $150 million, not to mention the cost of all those passenger lives (valued at about $3 million per if you use the WTC compensation figures). I don't know what the cost of screening is, but I'll bet it's cost effective compared to another 9/11.

(2) What liberties are taken away from people? The right to fly with a gun in a small metal tube at 30000 feet? Is that protected somewhere in the constitution? I don't recall anyone being subjected to a body cavity search. Nobody is forcing you to fly on the plane.

(3) The airline business is recovering, as evidenced by the recent financial reports. In fact, it is booming for carriers like JetBlue, SWA and others which have a sound
business plan. If anyone should be hurt by the extra time spend at the TSA checkpoints, it should be SWA, as driving is an alternative for many of their short haul flights. Profits will start to rise as soon as excessive capacity is eliminated with the death of a legacy carrier or 2.

(4) Economy is growing at 8.3% as resources have been reallocated from the aviation sector to more profitable endeavors.

(5) I feel a lot less stress now that we have federal security personnel and marshalls on the planes (as opposed to the half-assed job that was done pre 9/11). If you are so stressed by taking off your shoes at checkpoints and having your luggage searched, maybe you would be better off driving. It's just not worth it to get worked up over such a minor inconvenience.

UALOneKPlus

Yes, let's address each of these in turn:


In 2004 the TSA budget is $4.5 billion. This is a little less than the annual revenue of a single airline, Southwest airlines. So it costs the budget of one airline to provide security for all domestic and international flights in the US. Is this efficient? How prudent are we to waste tax payer money this way?

How can you justify this amount of expenditure on security for one very narrow segment of our society?

America is far more vulnerable in other areas now than the air travel segment. Yes 3,000 people died on 9/11. However, tens of thousands of Americans can die from a nuclear, biological, or chemical attack. What is the right proportion of expenditure for the air security? I'll hypothesize that it's far less than it is currently.

The liberties being taken away are small in nature, so there's not a big outcry. First of all, the right to privacy, dignity, and accountability. The TSA screeners are pretty good, but there are documented cases of passenger abuse, willy nilly enforcement of invisible security policies, black lists of passengers who are not allowed to fly - and no accountability to passengers if they happen to fall on this list, the random and common occurrence of theft from passenger luggages, and a litany of other aggrevances that are too numerous to mention in this small amount of space.

Liberty is never removed a large chunk at a time. It's nitpicked away small pieces at a time until the citizens realize that it's too late.

Yes the airlines are recovering, after nearly put to death in recent years. Can you imagine how much more robust the recovery would have been if passengers weren't burdened with the "Security Tax" on each flight, and it was made more convenient to fly? How much of a drain is the TSA on the airline business?

What, pray tell, are the more profitable sectors?

"Half-assed" job before 9/11? Are you nuts?

The hijackers followed security guidelines on 9/11/2001, so even if the TSA had been in place, 9/11 would not have been prevented. The only difference now is that we are not allowed to bring our little swiss army knives onboard. That brings little comfort to me.

I feel less stressed when I fly because the cockpits are now armored, and I know that I will fight tooth and nail against any hijacking attempt, as will many other frequent fliers who I know. The TSA has nothing to do with my feeling of "safety".

What's a minor inconvenience to you may be a major hassle for someone else. Particularly those who fall into the black list, or those who are prevented from bringing their fish onboard with them, or those who are forced to do major airport evacuations every time a little knife is found in a "sterile" area. Are those really minor? I don't think so.

[This message has been edited by UALOneKPlus (edited Jan 26, 2004).]

Boraxo

I'll stack my list against the last one any day. And presumably the vast majority of Americans would too, otherwise there would be congressional action to change the system. But not to worry; at some point in the not too distant future we will have a Total ReCall type system for x-raying everyone as the enter the metro, airport, etc.

As for privacy, I am far more concerned about the secret federal courts that permit secret wiretaps and computer monitoring of anyone who is labelled a possible aider and abettor of a "terrorist" by John Ashcroft. Not to mention the indefinite detention of "enemy combatants" who apparently don't merit the same protection of (choose one) accused criminals or POWs.

It really doesn't bother me one bit to take off my shoes, put them in the basket, walk through the metal detector, and then re-shoe, though I have to admit my feet are pretty clean as I shower at least daily.

NoStressHere

Come on folks.

The current airport situation (trying to be nice) would NOT prevent 9/11. We know it is not difficult to get knives through the system. You just have to be smart.

On the other hand, because we have changed our policy about what to do when someone takes over a plane, it would most probably change the outcome. Also, we now have somewhat secure cockpits. Policy and cockpits were the weak points then. NOT the TSA screening area.

And if you really think the multi billion dollar waste is making you safe, you are missing reality.

As to why Congress will not do anything about it? Easy. Who wants to be the one that cut funds when something happens? And it will, if and when the terrorists want it to happen. But, the money we are spending will not stop it.

screenerx

There is little possiblitiy of another 9/11 happening again, if it involves knives and such.

Security needs to focus on firearms and explosives. More training needs to go into these two areas and the training needs to be given to checkpoints screeners right away.