The One Who Didn't Get His Testicles Felt Up
Jessica Heslam and Joe Dwinell write for the Boston Herald about a kid who snuck into the wheel well of a jet and ended up falling to his death:
The grieving mother of a North Carolina teen -- who "likely" plummeted from the sky over Milton after toppling out of a Boeing 737 wheel well -- slammed airport security last night, saying her boy should have been stopped on the tarmac."I thought that after 9/11 there would be more security, especially on the ground," said Jonette Washington, mother of 16-year-old Delvonte Tisdale.
"He was a good kid. He wasn't really going to Boston. He was trying to get to Baltimore to get to me," she told the Herald.
In a stunning announcement, Norfolk District Attorney William R. Keating said yesterday it's "likely" the teen climbed into a wheel well of a jet in Charlotte, N.C., on Nov. 15 and fell to his death over Milton at about 9 p.m. Keating said a neighbor heard "a loud crashing noise" around that time.
Aviation experts told the Herald that jets bound for Boston coming in from the south drop their landing gear right over Milton.
"He somehow hid himself in the wheel well of a commercial airliner," Keating said. "It's a major breach of airport security that seems to have occurred."
..."He was coming home to me," his mother said. "He tried to get home."
Why was he separated from his mother? Child of divorce? I'll try to find out more.
It's tragic that this happened to the kid, but a testament to what I've been saying: Regarding all the pornoscanning, gropings and other security theater, just about any commenter on this site could sneak through -- or sneak something through -- if they were at all motivated.
My husbands flying to philadelphia right now. I am guessing he got groped.. Maybe he didn't but we had to check a bag because he has alot of meds that can be out of the bottle an all have to fit in a quart sized bag with his shampoo, razors, toothbrush.. Well just suffice it to say it wasn't all going to fit in a quart sized bag. So we put it in a gallon sized bag and had to pay to check the damn thing. I just hope he remember to put our camera in his personal bag and not the checked bag.. I know they with go through our bags and I can't convince mysel that some one immoral enough to not quit a job that requires they molest people will suddenly be a saint above stealing our 400$ camera..
And this kid is dead because the half wits at the TSA.. If they had the people trained to find terrorist it is likely they would be more observant.. They would have had a better chance than someone who just has the job because if they didn't take it their foodstamps would be cut..
JosephineMO7 at December 12, 2010 5:44 AM
I smell a lawsuit.
I sympathize with her. The death of an offspring is perhaps the most devastating of all losses.
Predictably, but erroneously, she places blame on TSA. Sorry, but the kid's a teenager and old enough to know better.
I don't believe it's realistic to expect security to forsee every single possibility and protect everyone from the consequences of doing stupid things. At some point we have to take responsibility for our own bad judgment. The kid did not die because of TSA. He died because he was an idiot.
Patrick at December 12, 2010 6:23 AM
Wow. She blames the TSA for her own child's stupidity? Teenagers all do stupid things but this is ridiculous. Someone who thinks they can fly in a wheel well of a plane is not someone's death I will mourn. He should definitely be nominated for a Darwin award. I hope the mother doesn't sue and if she does, I hope she doesn't get a cent since her moron son broke the law in the process of dying. I'd love to know why he was trying to get to his mom so badly. That is just weird.
Casey at December 12, 2010 6:36 AM
A teen should know better. I feel for him-that last few seconds of his life were unimaginably terrifying, and I feel for her, because I don't know how one would go on after losing a child. But it's no one else's fault but the kids'.
Do you people saying the scan is no big deal still feel safer with them? The kid could have easily had a bomb, or been one. Security theater. It's been said before-but if someone wants you dead bad enough, you're going to die. You might think about living first.
momof4 at December 12, 2010 6:51 AM
Casey writes: I'd love to know why he was trying to get to his mom so badly.
And why more conventional means of travel wasn't available...I wouldn't recommend this, but hitchhiking sounds safer.
Patrick at December 12, 2010 7:03 AM
"I don't believe it's realistic to expect security to forsee every single possibility and protect everyone..."
Really? Then why have this security theater at all (and at our expense)?
Please explain to me how this is NOT a failure of the TSA. They are "in charge" of "security" at the airport, after all.
Mike at December 12, 2010 8:28 AM
Well one I found out way back when -- most USAF bases have a mile or two of 12 foot tall chain link fence to the left and right of all the gates. But if you go around a little farther around it will drop to a 48 inch tall chain link. As a matter of fact -- one base had 48 inch farm fence on the backside of the base. And it was a nuke base.
Granted it was about two miles to the runway from there. About two and a half to the aircraft. Plus the nuke planes were well guarded.
I've seen the same thing at civilian airports as well.
I have gamed out how to penetrate security in my head, just to pass time, while wasting time going through security points for years.
Give me 95% of security -- I can find a way through in about an hour. It may take about two days to implement -- but the trick is to look "normal" while going through it.
The latest that came to mind -- a large bandanna and about $10-15 in change. You have a nice sap that can take people down easily.
Jim P. at December 12, 2010 8:30 AM
Delvonte was a member of the Air Force ROTC program at his high school in Charlotte:
http://news1.capitalbay.com/news/mystery_as_delvonte_tisdale_s.html
It seems that no one there taught him how terribly low the odds of survival are for wheel well stowaways. Could this be how he got past airport security - just strutting about in his snazzy uniform as if he belonged there?
Martin at December 12, 2010 10:00 AM
Good comment, Martin.
MAYBE it wasn't as easy for the TSA to prevent as some might think.
However, I'm reminded of an unbelievably easy - and terrifying - breach of security at Miami International Airport near the end of Dave Barry's 1999 novel "Big Trouble." (I didn't see the movie - it didn't get great reviews and much of the book was too depressing anyway, despite being very funny, of course.) My question is, have they improved things at the airport since then?
I'd like to add: When I'd finished the book, my main thought was: Why would you ever live in Miami if you didn't have to?
lenona at December 12, 2010 11:08 AM
Cruise altitude from Charlotte to Boston was somewhere around 33,000 feet.
Temp at altitude, no more than -40F.
Aircraft wheel wells are not pressurized or heated.
That kid was dead long before he hit the ground.
Hey Skipper at December 12, 2010 11:30 AM
Hey Skipper: Cruise altitude from Charlotte to Boston was somewhere around 33,000 feet.
Temp at altitude, no more than -40F.
Or centigrade. -40 is where Fahrenheit and Centigrade meet...or somewhere close to that.
I don't doubt what you're saying, but I wonder if there were variables that might have warmed things up. Friction without wind, proximity to burning fuels.
Not that it matters, I guess, since the kid is dead.
Ah, well. At least we know that terrorists won't be trying it, unless they can make it warm for themselves. Or unless they plan on blowing themselves up close to the ground.
Is one able to breathe at such a height?
Patrick at December 12, 2010 2:05 PM
I'm sorry for the mother's loss, but a teenager should know better than to do this. But that Darwin comment was a bit harsh.
At the same time, TSA shouldn't let foreign objects of any kind get onto the plane in anyway. Not to protect people from risking their lives doing stupid things, but to protect passengers on the plane from the possibility of a bomb being attached there.
KrisL at December 12, 2010 5:27 PM
I'm curious to see how the kid actually got to the plane. I've long said that the security for airport workers is ridiculously weak compared to what pax go through. But at a busy airport like Charlotte, an unfamiliar person is unlikely to get out onto the ramp and walk up to an airplane without being spotted. Historically, most wheel-well stowaways get aboard by climbing or breaching the fence at some remote corner of the airport and then getting in while the plane waits in line on a taxiway, well away from the terminal. Perimeter security is the airport's job, not the TSA's.
Hey Skipper is right about the atmosphere at 33,000 feet... there ain't much. No, you can't breathe at that altitude. And no, there isn't enough friction heat on the wings of a subsonic aircraft to offset the frigid outside temperature. (Supersonic aircraft are another matter.)
Cousin Dave at December 12, 2010 8:34 PM
I'm not so squeamish about the Darwin comment. Let's face it; Darwin Awards are sick humor anyway. And yeah, the kid deserves one.
Patrick at December 12, 2010 9:28 PM
Perimeter security is the airport's job, not the TSA's.
No, no, a thousand times NO
Once the fed decided they were in chare of security it means THEY are in charge of security.
Why the fuck do I have to get checked for a hernia by a federal rent-a-cop if they arent going to bother to secure the mother fucking fence?
There is a guy going to trial here in Phoenix, he ans his wife stole thousands of peices of luggage from the baggage claim area, just walked in and took it.
For any terrorists paying attention that means the baggage claim area is perfect for dropping off bombs as airports have ceeded security to the TSA and the TSA's offical line is they are only responible for bags going onto a plane and
passengers genitlia.
Im sorry but the federal governemt up and decreed themsevels sole arbiter of airline security - they should get sued by this mother, and quite fankly everyone on that airplane needs to sue for 'emotional distress' as well.
Either they do they fucking job the took over or they need to get the fuck out of the way and let airports go back to what they used to do. Becuase I'm getting sick of the TSA claim federal law enforcment powers when it suites them and wen ever there is a major fuck up on their end suddenly claiming that it was the airport's responsibility
lujlp at December 12, 2010 11:27 PM
sorry, darwin at work, this gene thread needed thinning
ron at December 13, 2010 10:25 AM
Yes.
Exceptionally fit mountaineers can top Everest (29,000) without supplemental oxygen.
However, normal cruise altitudes are nearly another mile higher.
Military pilots periodically undergo hypobaric chamber rides, where they are exposed to the effects of oxygen deprivation at 30,000 feet.
Most people stop being able to perform simple calculations at roughly a minute, and pass out within five.
There is enough O2 to stay alive, but not nearly enough for the brain to function.
Hey Skipper at December 13, 2010 3:49 PM
"Why the fuck do I have to get checked for a hernia by a federal rent-a-cop if they arent going to bother to secure the mother fucking fence?"
I don't disagree with you, luj. It's divided responsibility and no one is looking at the big picture.
"There is a guy going to trial here in Phoenix, he ans his wife stole thousands of peices of luggage from the baggage claim area, just walked in and took it. "
Several years ago, we went through Philadelphia on the way to London. In a hallway between terminals, they had hundreds of pieces of luggage that were being transferred between flights piled up in a corner. They "secured" them by putting up a rope in front of them. No one was watching them.
Cousin Dave at December 13, 2010 5:58 PM
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