How Hard Is It To Get Boxcutters Past The TSA?
This guy realized he'd left his in his carry-on, and with about five brain cells, figured out how to get it past the security puppet show. Christopher Elliott blogs at TSANewsBlog:
Andy deLivron says he's no threat to aviation security. But he flies with box cutters in his checked luggage -- the same weapon used by the 9/11 terrorists. And he recently packed the sharp tools in the wrong suitcase.By the time deLivron, a sales manager from Pottersville, NY, realized the box cutters had been misplaced in his carry-on bag, it was too late. He was already past the TSA screening area at Dallas Love Field and boarding his flight to Orlando, where he planned to catch a connecting flight to Albany, NY.
DeLivron missed his connection and had to spend the night in Orlando.
"But now I had a problem toss the knife or try to get it home in my carry-on bag," he says. "I decided if I could place the knife on edge in my carryon it would be highly likely that security would miss it again. Sure, enough I was right. My carryon went right on through in Orlando."
Yes, you read correctly. TSA agents missed a box cutter in his carry-on luggage. Twice in a day.
Elliott continues:
If there's a consensus among security experts, it's that the meaningful screening takes place long before you arrive at the airport, and that's where the failures of 9/11 happened...The faster the agency assigned to protect America's transportation systems returns to a common-sense screening approach, the better off all travelers will be. And by "common sense" I mean decommissioning the hated full-body scanners, banning "enhanced" pat-downs, retraining agents in the basics of customer service, allowing all passengers to leave their shoes on and travel with liquids, and using metal detectors as a primary screening method.
The heavy lifting of airport security should take place long before you arrive at the terminal. That's where your name should be vetted and compared against a list of known terrorists. That's where they'll catch the next hijacker.
I got a box cutter through by forgetting about it completely. It was in the bottom of my purse and the TSA never noticed.
MonicaP at April 3, 2013 10:32 AM
No surprise. There are so many ways to get prohibited items past TSA that it's not even amusing to try to figure them out. Heck, in most airports, there are plenty of ways you could get to an airplane without ever passing screening at all.
TSA never was about security, it was about using a crisis to establish yet more federal power. Now that DHS is buying ammunition and APCs, and TSA is expanding to cover the entire transportation system including roads, it seems all too clear: They are planning how to fight against the civilian populace, i.e., they are expecting civil uprisings.
a_random_guy at April 3, 2013 11:55 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2013/04/03/how_hard_is_it_1.html#comment-3667269">comment from a_random_guyTSA never was about security, it was about using a crisis to establish yet more federal power.
Exactly!
Amy Alkon
at April 3, 2013 12:00 PM
I have one major qualm with this. The name list. Isn't that what the "no-fly" list is supposed to be? But, just using names, infants have ended up on those lists (he can't hold his head up, but we KNOW he's dangerous).
For that matter, there were two kids in my high school with the same first/last names. Their middle initial was off by one letter (F and G). One was very bright, the other not so much. They had serious problems with things like SAT scores - and those supposedly used SSN. What about the three Jennifer Kims in my Latin class (no middle names). In class they were, "Jennie with an i-e," "Jenny with a y," and "Jennifer." I'm thinking that if my hometown had three, there are probably a few more in the country (and those three were all close in age/location).
Shannon M. Howell at April 3, 2013 12:12 PM
Leave a comment