TSA Shuts Down Airport, Detains 11 After "Science Project" Found 537
OverTheGeicoE writes "A group of students and a professor were detained by TSA at Dallas' Love Field. Several of them were led away in handcuffs. What did they do wrong? One of them left a robotic science experiment behind on an aircraft, which panicked a boarding flight crew. The experiment 'looked like a cell phone attached to a remote control car with some exposed wires protruding.' Of course, the false alarm inconvenienced more than the traveling academics. The airport was temporarily shut down and multiple gates were evacuated, causing flight delays and diversions."
Scare quotes (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Scare quotes (Score:5, Insightful)
Because that way, more people click on it. Don't you know how news sales works?
Re:Scare quotes (Score:5, Insightful)
FTFY.
Re:Scare quotes (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Scare quotes (Score:5, Interesting)
There was a time when JPL and MRI lured the brightest from all over the world into the country. Now they all get scared away. If anybody wants to meet me nowadays, I call them back to Europe. There's no way that I'd be traveing to the US anytime soon.
I know quite a lot of stuff that'd be deemed harmful to the US. Like logic, evolution, security related stuff. Maybe not grammar. Screw that. 30 years ago that was a completely different thing. Jimmy Carter. A downhill race ever since.
Who actually does vote those into office that are eternally scared of the stuff they don't understand themselves? Could you please strip them off their right to vote?
Re:Scare quotes (Score:5, Insightful)
Carter was a disaster as a president. However, the Republicans since 1980 have made a point of nominating the dimmest bulbs in the box.
Reagan? Already senile. His was a Weekend At Bernie's presidency.
Bush the Elder? A retread, complete with barfing on foreign dignitaries.
Then they moved on. BobDole... yeah. Shrub the Younger, whose intelligence could be measured in scoops of raisin bran. McCain, who while a "war hero" from years prior basically campaigned like a zombie.
And then we get the "brain trust" of this latest batch. Herman "couldn't even make an edible pizza" Cain. Mitt "robber baron" Romney. Rick Sanctimonous, champion of home schooling and anti-science rants. Michelle "hehe, I went into law because my hubby said we were done having babies and I should make myself useful in the daytimes before his nightly blowjob" Bachmann. And of course Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich, who "historians" who have a running bet to top each other and misrepresent American history in a worse way.
A friend of mine has a better word for these sorts of idiots - they're known as Brain Donors. Kind of like kidney donors, they obviously donated a long while ago and somehow are alive without a functioning brain.
Re:Scare quotes (Score:5, Funny)
I just realized I'm forgetting one. That one guy... uh... what was his name... uh... thinking...it's on the tip of my tongue... can't quite remember... sorry, lost it. "Oops."
Re:Scare quotes (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Scare quotes (Score:4, Funny)
To illustrate to you how scared you should be of "science projects" and their ilk. They're not called "scare quotes" for no reason.
Re:Scare quotes (Score:5, Insightful)
Is it really so hard to believe that a mechanism connected to what looks like a cell phone could be a bomb?
Ask someone who has been in Iraq and Afghanistan (or Israel for that matter) what is frequently used to detonate IEDs remotely on command.
Honestly, I know that there are some pretty ineffective TSA regulations out there, and that there's a lot of security theater going on, but I'd rather look like a fool than let hundreds of people die on my watch. And frankly, what do you think many homemade bombs are, if not science projects taken to a murderous extreme?
Perhaps this was an overreaction, but nothing in the article provides facts other than the indignation of those inconvenienced.
I do have to wonder, though, where can we draw the line where stupid things like this don't happen to innocent people, but that real terrorists can't take advantage of those lines.
Re:Scare quotes (Score:5, Insightful)
As I said to someone else, back when the Lite-Brite Mooninites panicked the Boston Police, the first rule of making a bomb, is to not make it look like a bomb. That's why IEDs get buried, stuffed into dead dogs, what have you. Around here, if you wanted to hide a bomb in plain sight, you'd stick it in a crumpled Dunkin Donuts bag.
Re:Scare quotes (Score:5, Funny)
Isn't a Dunkin Donuts bag the first place a cop would look?
Re:Scare quotes (Score:5, Insightful)
I do have to wonder, though, where can we draw the line where stupid things like this don't happen to innocent people, but that real terrorists can't take advantage of those lines.
There is no such line, and I think that most Americans will agree that the one that has been drawn is much more in favor of stupid things like this happening to people than we would like to settle for.
The important thing to remember is that security is far from free - and the TSA continues to exclusively prove that the dollars being spent on its services only put people at greater risk by diverting funds from more effective investments.
Re:Scare quotes (Score:5, Insightful)
Didn't read TFA, so I'll answer based on the "data" here.
It's perfectly legitimate to assume that this is a bomb. Perfectly reasonable assumption to make. What isn't reasonable is the actual reaction.
Close half the airport? Why? Just taxi the airplane to somewhere remote and examine the object there. An airplane on the ground simply will not go up in flames due to a small bomb (and even if it does, if it's in a remote corner of the airport, let it).
Detain the people involved? Sure. But why handcuff students?
And, yes, I live in Israel. And, yes, I simply fail to see such a thing causing such a reaction here.
Shachar
Re:It's a crap, not justification. (Score:4, Insightful)
My feeling is that those TSA pigs wouldn't be happier. They found justification for their crap existence and secured some more of future funding for their parasitic operations
You know the US is no longer a First World country when a government agency can justify its existence by causing a huge economic loss for no real reason.
Re:Scare quotes (Score:5, Funny)
Heh, I got hauled into the back room in Vienna or Graz once.
They showed me a scan of my bag. Large round opaque item in the centre of the bag (the explosive charge, I suppose) with wires headed off to a 'control box' full of electronics, coils, etc.. Looked... fairly intelligent bomb like I suppose, if it was 1940.
The 'control unit' was an old tube radio I was bringing home, the 'charge' was a lead crystal ashtray (hence the opaque-ness), and the wires were headphone wires which just happened to run between them, on a different layer of clothes... I got a pretty good kick out of it.
I suppose if the TSA was smart enough to read the xrays, they'd probably have locked down the airport, were it in the US!
Re:Scare quotes (Score:4, Interesting)
The tubes all made it. I don't think i even put protective wrap on them... I forget, though.
It was an old beater, just had sentimental value for the family, so I figured I'd give it a tune-up.
I never did get FM working on it, though... Maybe I should take another look at it, I was fairly noob back then, this was 10 or 15 years ago. (and I have actual test equipment now, don't need to guess anymore).
You're looking in the wrong place (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:You're looking in the wrong place (Score:5, Insightful)
The terrorists are strip-searching people with judicial approval.
Re:You're looking in the wrong place (Score:5, Insightful)
The terrorists are laughing up their sleeves.
Re:You're looking in the wrong place (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
Every American is a terrorist... if you ask those in charge. They just like to paint "outsiders" as terrorists to scare the citizens into control.
Re:You're looking in the wrong place (Score:5, Interesting)
Every American is a criminal... if you ask those in charge
FTFY. Why do you think the number of criminal offenses keeps increasing? Ayn Rand hit the ball out of the park:
"There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws."
Re:You're looking in the wrong place (Score:4, Informative)
Someone should've offered her a newspaper. Years before she wrote that book, the US government had already relocated and interned 110 000 innocent civilians - 62% of which American citizens.
Re:You're looking in the wrong place (Score:5, Informative)
You do realize that most of her "dystopian" writing was not dire predictions of things to come, but simply descriptions of things she had seen while young, right? That was exactly the sort of thing she was writing about (and far, far worse, in the early USSR).
Re:You're looking in the wrong place (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:You're looking in the wrong place (Score:5, Insightful)
That was wartime. Different rules apply during war.
Was there a decade in the last century in which the US not at war with some country (or now, terrorist groups)?
And those 'innocent civilians'?
Uuuh, scare quotes. Yes, at least the vast majority of them, exceptions notwithstanding.
there's at least one documented case of them coming to the aid of a crashed Japanese pilot. Would you have the government just ignore that?
Are you seriously trying to justify the internment of a whole ethnic group because of the actions of one single individual?
Re:You're looking in the wrong place (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually, it's more like "Lots of Americans hate THEIR GOVERNMENT." I actually love my country, and it's idiots, very much. Most of them are fairly kind and happy. But lawyers and CEOs are usually suspected of vile anti-social behavior (correctly) until proven innocent.
Re:You're looking in the wrong place (Score:4, Informative)
If it was a White Extremest Christian my money is on property damage, or arson at most.
Yep, everyone refers to the 168 dead from the Oklahoma City bombing as "property damage" and no one ever refers to Timothy McVeigh as a terrorist.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/oklahoma/stories/ok042597.htm [washingtonpost.com]
http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0106/09/pitn.00.html [cnn.com]
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=93055&page=1 [go.com]
Unless you don't count CNN, ABC and the Washington Post as "MSM".
Re:You're looking in the wrong place (Score:4, Interesting)
That's not even hyperbole, just a basic opinion on when "personhood" begins that differs from the majority opinion. If you share that opinion, it would be hard not to be appalled by the rampant infanticide.
It's sad that geeks are, on the whole, so quick to just dismiss someone with differing values. When someone comes to a very diferent conclusion, we shouldn't be so quick to assume they're stupid, instead ask whther they're starting from different assumptions (certainly 90% of design arguments at work could be avoided by this practice).
Re:You're looking in the wrong place (Score:4, Funny)
Very true! I believe that life begins with ejaculation! Every one of you masturbators is a mass murderer!
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
You're mistaking a difference of opinion with bias. Yes, there's a difference. Go look it up.
And this complaining about the slashdot moderation is a really tired meme. The only time it gets brought up is by people who somehow care what their post is sitting at. Yes, it's a popularity contest. That's inherent in any moderation system. No, it doesn't mean that it automatically means that your beautiful snowflakishness is being unjustly trampled. It means that the majority think that what you wrote is dumb, un
Re: (Score:3)
Number of actual terrorists blocked by TSA (Score:5, Insightful)
Zero.
Number of people nude Xrayed or sexually groped (on their breasts or crotch) or strip-searched or locked in glass jails for carrying breast milk or ..... (this list could go on several pages).
Millions.
I hope none of those machines were malfunctioning and ejected lethal doses. They are never checked. TIME TO END THE TSA. And the Fed (give the power back to the State central banks).
Re:Number of actual terrorists blocked by TSA (Score:5, Interesting)
The TSA sucks, but I can't say I disagree with their response in this case. The device is described as a robot-like device with exposed wires, resembling a handmade explosive device. According to the statement in the article, the TSA determined that the device was not harmful, the airport reopened, and everything went back to normal. That seems like what is supposed to happen.
The Dallas City Hall statement in the article:
That doesn't change my opposition to the groping and scanning, of course. But this story seems just a little overblown. I think an airport would have reacted this way regardless of the existence of the TSA.
Re:Number of actual terrorists blocked by TSA (Score:4, Informative)
I hate to admit it, but I'd have to agree on this. They did exactly what I would want them to do. However, I'd have stopped short of arresting to poor bastard who let the thing on the plane. A harmless device and a honest mistake. It could happen to anyone, and it has happened to me.
I left my hat on a plane. I realized it as soon as I got through the gate. I informed the gate lacky and they called up the flight crew. They could not find it (even though I told them exactly where it was), after a bit of haggling with the guy at the gate, I was allowed to re-board the plane (with out escort) and retrieve my hat. The unescorted bit confused me a little. Still does.
This still does not make like TSA any less.
Re:Number of actual terrorists blocked by TSA (Score:5, Insightful)
Soooo ... "exposed wires"? (Score:5, Insightful)
So if I put coloured epoxy over the wires so they cannot be seen ...
The point is that the people claiming that this looks like "a handmade explosive device" do not know what "a handmade explosive device" looks like.
It just looks UNUSUAL so they panicked.
Re:Soooo ... "exposed wires"? (Score:4, Funny)
pshaw, I've seen movies, kid, movies with explosive devices. They always look electronic and have exposed wires. Usually you cut the blue one.
Re:Soooo ... "exposed wires"? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Number of actual terrorists blocked by TSA (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Number of actual terrorists blocked by TSA (Score:5, Insightful)
>>>The TSA sucks, but I can't say I disagree with their response in this case.
A little late don't you think? The TSA's job is to keep bomb-looking devices OFF the plane, not discover them 5 hours later after the flight is already over. If this was a real bomb* then it would have already been used. TSA == fail. (again)
*
*I doubt terrorists will waste their time attacking airplanes with bombs. They'll go after soft targets like your home or factory. The best way to deal with them is to keep them OUT of the country in the first place (yes that means walls on both borders; enemies shouldn't be able to just walk in).
Re:Number of actual terrorists blocked by TSA (Score:5, Insightful)
I like that. Who needs bombs when you can effectively DDoS the airport?
Re:Number of actual terrorists blocked by TSA (Score:4, Insightful)
Taking down a plane is scary, and it would really suck for the people on the plane. Hijacking a plane and hitting a building with it is much worse.
Your argument is that if we didn't have the TSA, we'd not have any security, and that's incorrect. Keep the security we already have - scan the bags, metal detect the people, and be done with it. You can't scan for all the possible ways to make something explode, and any hijacking attempt is very likely to be stopped by passengers that are now aware of the problems (like both of the bombers that you mention).
9/11 happened because passengers figured the hijackers would make demands, and then they'd go land somewhere and the people would be free, because that's what typically happened with hijackings before then (I believe.. I may be picturing movies). There was no incentive to fight back, and risk of injury or death if they did. When the passengers on Flight 93 found out about the attacks in other places, they realized that they either fought back and maybe lived, or died in a fiery death and caused other people to be injured/die. They then tried to regain control of the plane. I don't think any hijackings with a conscious passenger cabin are likely to succeed for a very long time.
Re:Number of actual terrorists blocked by TSA (Score:5, Interesting)
Mod parent up please. And add to that, cockpit doors are now reinforced.
Also had a brief demonstration this weekend of what a pilot can do to incapacitate passengers. We had a go-around at our landing, first time I've ever done one. Pilots were not trying hard to be annoying or unpleasant, but the down-down-down then up-up-up made my tummy not very happy. A few more of those, I'd have probably been sick, and I'm sure I was not the only one. Imagine if the pilots were trying -- "fasten your seatbelts, or else".
Re:Number of actual terrorists blocked by TSA (Score:5, Informative)
Terrorists have always been forced to disguise their bombs. That didn't help the people on Pan Am flight 103 [wikipedia.org]. The reason the two terrorists you mention failed was that they tried to light something on fire with other people around. The TSA had no role whatsoever in foiling those plots.
Re:Number of actual terrorists blocked by TSA (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
Exactly! This should be proof enough that the TSA does not work.
While I'm no fan of the TSA, perhaps in this example they DID work. Sounds to me that at security they took a look at whatever the hell this thing is/was, correctly declared it as NotBomb, and let it through.
Re:Number of actual terrorists blocked by TSA (Score:5, Insightful)
Except this is proof that the TSA completely fucked up and didn't do their job. If the device was such that it would terrify (much more highly trained than the TSA goons) air crew, what the holy fuck was it doing on the plane in the first place, let alone in the cabin or outside of a container in cargo, with the power source disconnected?
What also pisses me off is that the passengers were the ones who were taken away and interrogated. I wonder: Did the TSA agents who fucked up also get taken into custody and subjected to interrogation?
If not, why not? Either through intent or incompetence they allowed this to happen. If it was intent, then they're clearly abetting terrorists, and if they're incompetent they shouldn't have jobs anymore.
Re:Number of actual terrorists blocked by TSA (Score:5, Interesting)
You'd think that there would be a pink sticker or some shit for nutty stuff that's already passed a first screening. I can tell you, as a guy that carries various odd electronic equipment all over the country, it'd be nice to earn some sort of reward for convincing the apathetic screener that what I'm carrying onto the plane is, indeed, a very expensive spectrophotometer and not an evil pilot killing death ray machine, complete with a USB strangling cable for those desperation fallback plans (please, please stop fucking with
Incidentally, I flew a couple years back, and had to give up my $0.99 nail clippers that I'd forgotten I'd put in my pocket. Apparently I could have clipped the pilots' fingernails too short until he bled to death...? They didn't even have the file/stabby bits on em. Still, only $0.99 and I knew better, so d'oh. What pissed me the fuck off, though: I went to a shop on the "glad that's over" side of security to get a book and some chips prior to boarding my flight, and guess what I saw? The same exact fucking brand of stabby-less nail clippers for $4.99. I half wondered if they were MY clippers, and that security took so long because they needed time to repackage them for re-sale to me.
Re:Number of actual terrorists blocked by TSA (Score:5, Insightful)
This was found on a plane right??
I think the biggest problem here is that the TSA at one airport cleared the device for carry-on (not checked) and that another airport goes apeshit when the same device, already approved, is left on the plane.
Where is the communication and common sense here? The TSA should have never let it on the plane as carry-on and checked it, with special instructions if you needed to go that far.
The TSA is responsible for creating the situation here.
Re:Number of actual terrorists blocked by TSA (Score:5, Insightful)
And the Fed (give the power back to the State central banks).
I hate rider bills.... :)
Science!!! (Score:5, Funny)
They grounded us with science...
Obligatory (Score:5, Insightful)
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
Earth to Absent-minded Professor. Come in please.. (Score:5, Insightful)
What kind of moron takes something that "look[s] like a cell phone attached to a remote control car with some exposed wires protruding" onto an airplane?
Re:Earth to Absent-minded Professor. Come in pleas (Score:5, Insightful)
What kind of moron takes something that "look[s] like a cell phone attached to a remote control car with some exposed wires protruding" onto an airplane?
What kind of moron LETS SOMEONE take something that look[s] like a cell phone attached to a remote control car with some exposed wires protruding" onto an airplane? I mean, if snow globes [salon.com] are verboten, how in the world could that contraption possibly get on board in the first place?
Re:Earth to Absent-minded Professor. Come in pleas (Score:4, Informative)
Better question - if they let it on the plane, then why didn't TSA ask the flight crew what the thing was instead of treating it like a bomb? Seems somebody should have already known it was on the plane during the flight.
Re:Earth to Absent-minded Professor. Come in pleas (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3)
Better question - if they let it on the plane, then why didn't TSA ask the flight crew what the thing was instead of treating it like a bomb?
Because the flight crew had no idea what it was. They're the ones who reported it. This was the incoming flight crew that had just walked onto the plane. And the outgoing flight crew certainly doesn't know what every passenger is carrying, so even if you could find them, they couldn't help.
Re:Earth to Absent-minded Professor. Come in pleas (Score:5, Interesting)
Just to be the devil's advocate, imagine the following scenario.
Professor reaches TSA, shows the package, passes it through X-ray / opens it to show there is no chemical / explosive, and answers questions to the fully satisfaction of TSA (yes I am teacher these are the children I teach...).
Sometime later, someone else (who of course has not been told that there was such teacher with such object in the previous flight) finds the surprise. Even if the artifact was competently investigated by the TSA, the people who found it probably had no way to verify that ---> panic button.
To me, this article is bussiness as usual, and per se (the devil lies in details) it does not show up any incompetence / abuse
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
So you'd never investigate anomalous network activity on your network because clearly your perimeter defenses would keep the hackers out?
C'mon now; I loathe the TSA as much as anybody else, but if you don't get the concept of defense in depth you're probably not qualified to throw stones...
Re: (Score:3)
That is what the flight attendant said it looked like. That does not mean that it looked like that in the slightest. /. once had an article where the police were called on the halo devs for carrying a AF-47 around in public, the AF-47 was in fact a 10 foot long halo sniper rifle replica that does not even look real (http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/9/2011/11/medium_3ce16ecb6851fdac6329346672baea73.jpg).
Re:Earth to Absent-minded Professor. Come in pleas (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Earth to Absent-minded Professor. Come in pleas (Score:4, Interesting)
What kind of moron takes something that "look[s] like a cell phone attached to a remote control car with some exposed wires protruding" onto an airplane?
Uh, someone that does not want the device utterly destroyed?
Checked luggage gets the shit beat out of it. Also, very often, security personnel will go through your luggage, and break even more stuff, through plain negligence, or just plain re-packing it poorly.
It got on the plane (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Re:It got on the plane (Score:5, Interesting)
If it got on the plane, someone checked it somewhere and gave it a thumbs-up. That makes it more likely to be a toy, just like it looked.
Or it could have been placed aboard the aircraft by a crew member, ground support personnel, or any other person with access to the sterile area that intended to do something illegal. To get a job that gives you access to the sterile area takes little more than a 10-year background check, with no ongoing checks. There is always the possibility that someone could turn or be a sleeper long enough to get a job. That is why aircrews and airline employees are supposed to look for and report anything suspicious, because there are always ways to get something past security. Things like this actually do happen on a fairly regular basis, but it usually involves theft or drugs. The aircrew was right to report it.
Re:It got on the plane (Score:5, Insightful)
If it got on the plane, someone checked it somewhere and gave it a thumbs-up. That makes it more likely to be a toy, just like it looked.
What's to say that when it passed through security it wasn't a cell phone, an RC car and wires with plugs on them - in different bags and/or from different people? I hate to be defending the TSA, but in this case I think it was perfectly reasonable to suspect this could be an airport/airplane assembled bomb. "Forgetting" it on board might be a way to make it blow up on the next flight rather than become a suicide bomber, honestly I have a hard time finding fault with suspected terrorist bombers being cuffed. Yeah of course it sucks for everyone affected when it turns out to be an innocent mistake but if they didn't react to this, what do you expect them to react to?
That sounds reasonable (Score:5, Informative)
I'm as against the TSA as anyone.
But come on. Considering what was found, why should any authority there NOT freak out? The flight crew did.
It's really annoying it had such a large impact but in this case it was I think fully warranted. Even though I think they should have been allowed to enter the plane with the whole kit unscanned, once they left it behind all bets are off.
Re:That sounds reasonable (Score:4, Insightful)
People leave stuff on planes. That's a fact. People carry weird looking electronics on board. That's a fact too. You can't scream bloody murder unless there's one. Just because someone has wires n'shit doesn't mean it's dangerous.
Re:That sounds reasonable (Score:4, Interesting)
And people have left bombs behind on aircraft as well [wikipedia.org]. Designed to blow up AFTER the plane took off again. And the bomber left at the stopover, too.
Of course, I suppose people have hidden bombs in checked luggage [wikipedia.org] as well. (This was one of the incidents that led to the rules where if a passenger fails to board the plane, their baggage is offloaded as well).
All this happened prior to 9/11. People are a wee bit more paranoid now.
Re: (Score:3)
Since when do terrorists routinely use weird-looking electronics without concealing the weird-looking parts so that the devices look harmless? All of the IEDs I've ever seen in photos have been concealed in other things—laser printer cartridges, suitcases, cardboard boxes, etc. The whole point of such devices is that they are designe
Re:That sounds reasonable (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, if the flight crew is freaking out, then either the TSA let it through or gave it the OK because it's ON THE PLANE.
Either the TSA's useless (for letting a bomb go through)
or the flight crew's panicking (for assuming the TSA let a bomb go through).
Re: (Score:3)
Or maybe the TSA checked it, but when someone found it later he had no way to be sure that it was a TSA-approved device and them prefered to be safe than sorry.
How do they know that? (Score:3)
Well, if the flight crew is freaking out, then either the TSA let it through or gave it the OK because it's ON THE PLANE.
I'm sorry, but that's an incredibly stupid and naive thought.
The flight crew did not scan the passengers. Also by that time there have been a number of ground crew interacting with the plane. It could have even been assembled in mid-air. The crew has no idea where this thing might have come from.
There's not way you can expect a flight crew and even law enforcement to not reasonable co
Another TSA Fail (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Another TSA Fail (Score:4, Informative)
Not necessarily. Just up the road at the DFW airport a woman got a handgun past the ever vigilant TSA.
http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/TSA-Woman-slips-through-DFW-Airport-checkpoint-with-gun-137567048.html [wfaa.com]
Meanwhile, somewhere deep in the Arabian sea .... (Score:4, Funny)
Well (Score:3, Funny)
they will get it back as a court room evidence (Score:3)
they will get it back as a court room evidence
This is a bit suspicious. (Score:5, Insightful)
Charges? (Score:4)
Lack of communication (Score:4, Insightful)
The same with the shooting in Florida. If both guys had just talked/asked questions that teenager would still be alive.
Learn your damn TLAs (Score:3)
Is the TSA worth it? (Score:5, Interesting)
Reminds me of something that happened to me... (Score:5, Interesting)
It was 2002, and I was taking a course in digital electronics. One of the well-known projects for this course was to build a digital clock from regular 74xx and 74xxx IC's. We were to complete the projects on our own breadboards, and we could, if we wanted to keep the result, buy our own electronic components as well. I bought my own electronics, and as a result, could work on it when I was not necessarily in the lab. I was in a fairly reclusive hallway in the school around lunctime, testing out a circuit I had designed which would get incorporated into my final project, and I was using some LED's for feedback, which flickered quickly as my circuit ran. I was concentrating on what I was doing, and was surprised when someone from campus security came up to me and grabbed me by the shoulder. I spent the next 15 minutes in the office of campus security explaining what I was doing, and as it happened, one of the people from campus security knew the professor and could vouch for the story I was giving. They had called my professor for the course anyways, who came to security, chuckled at the whole incident, because he recognized me immediately, and said that he knew me and that I was okay.
Later that afternoon, during the class lecture, the prof relayed the anecdote to everybody with much amusement, not mentioning exactly who it was who, evidently, got him called down to the security office because they thought one of his students was building a bomb. He advised us all that we should be building our projects in the lab only, and not in the hallways of the school.
Star Simpson again (Score:3)
http://tech.mit.edu/V127/N40/simpson.html [mit.edu]
Officials not allowed to use their own judgement (Score:3)
It used to be that police would investigate intelligently, and lay charges appropriately. Now, it appears that everything must reach a judge before common sense is applied. We are living in the days where losing a cell phone will cause a plane to be grounded. We need to get people to use their brains again, and not make major incidents out of false alarms.
Think of the TSA! (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
How many things actually happened in the entire history of commercial flights before the TSA existed? And why do they still exist in light of that? Sheesh.
Doh! Wasn't logged in for some reason.
Re: (Score:3)
They're the aviation equivalent of the bear patrol....
Re: (Score:3)
Re:When it comes to security (Score:5, Insightful)
This isn't fear, it's pure stupid. They got it through airport security, on to a plane, flew to their destination, and *now*, suddenly, it's a f***ing danger to the entire state of Texas. Those TSA morons just showed stupid they are and how much they can over react. There used to be this thing called "Lost and Found", but today, if you leave anything anywhere around an airport, you're a Terrorist(tm).
Re:When it comes to security (Score:5, Insightful)
The hilarity is that if the nerds really wanted to play havoc with US air travel, they could, and there's not a damn thing the TSA could do about it.
Re:When it comes to security (Score:4, Insightful)
If everybody on Slashdot gets an old phone, opens it up and leaves it on a plane...
Re:When it comes to security (Score:5, Informative)
If everybody on Slashdot gets an old phone, opens it up and leaves it on a plane...
Then everybody on slashdot will get detained, probed and then TSA will request additional funding based on the spikes in detaining/probing/confiscations.
Seriously, there is no positive outcome here. I think those people were handcuffed to create an appearance of hard work. TSA hasn't caught a single terrorist in over a decade of existence. The fact that they are still getting (increased) funding is hard to imagine.
Re:When it comes to security (Score:5, Funny)
TSA hasn't caught a single terrorist in over a decade of existence. The fact that they are still getting (increased) funding is hard to imagine.
That means it's working!
Re:When it comes to security (Score:5, Funny)
Lisa, I want to buy your rock.
Re: (Score:3)