TSA Delays Hoards After They Foul Up

[CPT Tripss]

Don't be so quick to blame passengers for delaying you at the the aairport security screening checkpoints. They are only asking Airport Security Screeners to do their jobs. An Airport Security Screener messes up and then the whole terminal gets closed. Sadly, the TSA then decides to make up a story that s/he readily admits is "speculative" to try to justify their screw up.

By all accounts, it started innocently. An airport screener missed a bag.
But by the time it was over, authorities had shut down an airport terminal for two hours, airlines delayed almost a dozen flights and scores of air travelers probably were wondering whether they should have taken the train.

...

While Port Authority Police Department union representatives complained that the incident was an example of TSA incompetence, a TSA official, speaking on background, said other factors may vindicate the agency. The TSA said that a woman they identified early in the incident twice denied being the woman with the suspicious bag. The woman's repeated denials prompted them to focus on other individuals, prolonging the incident.

The woman may have denied having the bag, the TSA official speculated, because she had purchased some perfume in a duty-free shop, and did not have the liquid in the required one-quart plastic bag.

The TSA official acknowledged the theory was speculative, but said the TSA hopes to learn more in a "hot wash" or review of the incident.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/02/travel/tsa-screening/index.html?hpt=hp_bn7

Read the entire linked article. The incident has a real Keystone Kops quality. It would be funny were it not so sad.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

Gee as the article says.............it was a MISTAKE........that caused alot of confusion.......

but since it is TSA workers.......would taking them out and hanging them make you happy Tripps?

You never made a mistake at your job?

You do have a personal vendeta againist anything TSA or secruity. You love you take cheap shots at them over and over again,make every mole hill into a mountain It is plain not right or fair to the thousands of TSA empolyees who work hard at a hard job.

Those folks make mistakes like ALL of us........

AKK

 

[seashoreCM]

TSA should pay for its mistakes.

That is a form of more correctly having all of us citizens as taxpayers better share the costs of hiring people like TSA for protecting ourselves whether in a plane or on the ground.

As far as an individual employee's making a mistake, that is properly part of the cost of doing business and the company owners should share the cost of that mistake which then shows up in profits/dividends and in the future retain/choose better employees.

Another part of correctly sharing the burden is the flat tire rule. Are airlines willing to accommodate or do we need more federal regulation?

One mistake is arguing with the (women) sufficiently for her to repeatedly deny she was the "one". More proper would be rescreening her as if they saw her for the first time.

 

[CPT Tripss]

A simple mistake and a termial shut down for hours with all the associated flight delays. That's a major SNAFU - not merely a little confusion Skip.

It's one of many screwups that indicate our airport security needs major changes to make it efficient and effective.

 

[sam_gordon]

It's one of many screwups that indicate our airport security needs major changes to make it efficient and effective.

Personally, I don't think you're going to have both. Pick one. At least when you consider the amount of air travelers in the US.

 

[maxiesmom]

It is well known the OP has an axe to grind for some reason with the TSA. It does make taking any of their posts seriously hard, there is bound to be some anti-TSA bent to it. However I think they are making an argument for more screening and more TSA agents. Which I would be all for.

 

[pr surfer]

I'd rather they use the ones they have more efficiently. One should count the ones at a checkpoint that are doing nothing.

 

[sam_gordon]

I'd rather they use the ones they have more efficiently. One should count the ones at a checkpoint that are doing nothing.

Just throwing a theory out there, but is it possible the ones doing "nothing" are simply waiting for something to happen? Maybe the "rush" is in another hour or two or even 30 minutes.

At my job, I can be going 100 MPH, 0 MPH, or anywhere in between. Depending on when you see me, I could be doing "nothing".

 

[sam_gordon]

Also I wanted to ask CPT what TSA should have done AFTER they realized the mistake? Just say "oh well, hopefully there was nothing in that bag."?

Granted, I don't understand how, after looking at the videotape they came to question so many different passengers (male, female, white, black, etc), and THAT needs to be addressed.

 

[pr surfer]

If you can lean, you can clean. They need to do something. If as a taxpayer, you're not upset at visible waste, then you need to get your eyes checked.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Great idea, pr surfer.

Uh, what should the cleaners do?

 

[CPT Tripss]

There is always the need to sanitize the floors and bins. There are hoards of people walking on the floors in "stocking" feet and the bins are loaded wwith filthy shoes.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Don't be so quick to blame passengers for delaying you at the the aairport security screening checkpoints. They are only asking Airport Security Screeners to do their jobs. An Airport Security Screener messes up and then the whole terminal gets closed. Sadly, the TSA then decides to make up a story that s/he readily admits is "speculative" to try to justify their screw up.




http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/02/travel/tsa-screening/index.html?hpt=hp_bn7

Read the entire linked article. The incident has a real Keystone Kops quality. It would be funny were it not so sad.

Neither funny nor sad (and as a side comment, your constant harangues against the TSA has gotten so boring, I save your posts for when I can't sleep). Surely you recall the adage 'better safe than sorry'?

At any rate, in 2010 - the last year for which I could find information - EWR handled an average of 1,105 flights per day (source: EWR website). 'About a dozen' delayed flights represents one percent or less of the flights at that airport that day. EWR/JFK/LGA are notorious for flight delays. I will be stunned if a much higher number of flights weren't delayed at EWR that day for reasons having nothing to do with this mistake in one branch of one terminal.

 

[CPT Tripss]

Also I wanted to ask CPT what TSA should have done AFTER they realized the mistake? Just say "oh well, hopefully there was nothing in that bag."?

Granted, I don't understand how, after looking at the videotape they came to question so many different passengers (male, female, white, black, etc), and THAT needs to be addressed.

You know Sam, I don't know. All I know is that they closed the area for about two hours, looked around some, found nothing and decided that there was nothing. In essence they waited a couple of hours and then said "oh well, hopefully there was nothing in that bag."

Now since we have no reports of explosions, gun shots or stabbings related to air travel that day, I'm willing to bet that there was nothing.

 

[kaytieeldr]

There is always the need to sanitize the floors and bins. There are hoards of people walking on the floors in "stocking" feet and the bins are loaded wwith filthy shoes.

Perhaps you can explain how or why it would be reasonable to clean a tub in which someone had placed dirty shoes or luggage so someone else can place dirty shoes or luggage in that tub. I'm pretty damn intelligent* and I don't see the sense behind it.

Passengers who object to walking barefoot on dirty floors have the option of those new-fangled foot protection inventions; I think they're called socks.

Frankly, I'd rather walk barefoot on a dirty floor than on one that was wet/slippery because the TSOs were forced to multi-task.

*by the way, I think you mean 'hordes' - crowds, right?

 

[gmeh1]

You know Sam, I don't know. All I know is that they closed the area for about two hours, looked around some, found nothing and decided that there was nothing. In essence they waited a couple of hours and then said "oh well, hopefully there was nothing in that bag."

Now since we have no reports of explosions, gun shots or stabbings related to air travel that day, I'm willing to bet that there was nothing.

I spoke with people who came through my booth from NJ (which by the way are some of the most incredibly rude people on the planet, not all, but most) and all of them told me that someone had breached security and they closed the airport to investigate. I am sorry you have an issue with people trying to protect you and the flying public, but, I would rather a shut down then an attack.

 

[pr surfer]

I spoke with people who came through my booth from NJ (which by the way are some of the most incredibly rude people on the planet, not all, but most) and all of them told me that someone had breached security and they closed the airport to investigate. I am sorry you have an issue with people trying to protect you and the flying public, but, I would rather a shut down then an attack.

The problem isn't the shut down. If someone snuck through, get them out and screen them. Then it would be completely understandable, and the TSA would have a leg to stand on.

The problem is that the missed bag was a screener's fault.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

You know Sam, I don't know. All I know is that they closed the area for about two hours, looked around some, found nothing and decided that there was nothing. In essence they waited a couple of hours and then said "oh well, hopefully there was nothing in that bag."

Now since we have no reports of explosions, gun shots or stabbings related to air travel that day, I'm willing to bet that there was nothing.

now we agree..your correct......no one knows ...least of all you and I and anyone on the Diz boards............what is going on......behind the scences......TSA agents standing around.........maybe doing visual inspection of the area...........others following up on leads.etc........holding the place closed for 2 hours may have been the time nesisary to review all the videos to determine if that bag was a problems...........gee triips........maybe is was not guess work.......maybe they were follow secuirity standards and determined the bag was not a problem..............

Next time they should call you and keep you updated, so you don't have bring little snippy remarks here.


AKK

 

[sam_gordon]

You know Sam, I don't know. All I know is that they closed the area for about two hours, looked around some, found nothing and decided that there was nothing. In essence they waited a couple of hours and then said "oh well, hopefully there was nothing in that bag."

Did we read the same article?

At 12:22 p.m., more than an hour into the incident, a screener stopped a female JetBlue employee believed to be the owner of the bag. Upon rescreening, it was determined that her bag was allowed to pass through security unchecked. But because of the lapse of time, and the possibility she could have taken contraband into the secure side of the checkpoint, officers continued with their inspection of the area and its occupants. They reopened the checkpoint about 1 p.m

Again, according to the article, the "breach" happened at 11:18am. So, just over an hour later, they had tracked down the suspect bag. They kept things closed to make sure nothing had gotten left in the secure area.

Again, I'm not saying the TSA is blameless or shouldn't be held accountable, but, IMO, this incident should have very little, if any, impact on the "OMG, THE TSA IS EVIL AND SHOULD BE DISBANDED IMMEDIATELY!" issue.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

The problem isn't the shut down. If someone snuck through, get them out and screen them. Then it would be completely understandable, and the TSA would have a leg to stand on.

The problem is that the missed bag was a screener's fault.

And you never made a mistake at work?