Airport security must be some kind of joke. How else do you explain two recent embarrassing security breaches at America’s post-9/11 airports?
In Milwaukee, an elderly woman managed to drive through a security fence toward an active runway before being intercepted by sheriff’s deputies.
Imagine if the breach had been intentional. Do you think the terrorists would have been able to get to the runway?
Yeah, me too.
Last month, an eight-year-old boy with a prior record of breaking through airport security did it again.
Surveillance video shows Semaj Booker passing through the central checkpoint security area without any problems before being apprehended by TSA agents. It is unclear how he managed to do it without a boarding pass. After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, it became a requirement to have a ticket when passing through security.
Is anyone paying attention — if not laughing — at the porous airport security where grannies and kids can make it through? Well, no.
No one gave airport security a second thought back in 2000, when a government report concluded that anyone could board a flight with a weapon. Two agents managed to board a plane without so much as being questioned.
[They] obtained boarding passes and foreign permits to carry weapons aboard flights for which they had purchased tickets … They carried briefcases that were never x-rayed. They walked right up to the door that led down the gangway to the airplane. Nothing stood between them and the aircraft. They had fooled everyone.
And everyone knows what happened next.
Is history about to repeat itself? If it does, it won’t be a laughing matter.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh lord what a joke! My brother has had a box cutter on his key chain for 10 years and never stopped. Aboard a flight I discovered I had a Swiss Army knife in my purse. Well, I decided to see how long it would take airport security to notice. It’s been there since 2004.
TSA has really let their guard down. A few months after 911 my girlfriend and I were headed to FL for a cruise and she had been given (by her company) a mini swiss army knife on a keychain.
It was in her carryon–deep under the stuff and they found it and made her either throw it away or not pass.
We have slipped into complacency and that is scary!
My grandson inadvertently passed through security at LAX with a can of lighter fluid and a functioning lighter. (Just for the record, he doesn’t smoke.) He discovered his error while changing planes and decided to leave things status quo when going through security again in Cincinnati. Needless to say, he was not discovered, but he did pack his “illegal” items into a checked bag for the way home.
My grandson inadvertently passed through security at LAX with a can of lighter fluid and a functioning lighter. (Just for the record, he doesn’t smoke.) He discovered his error while changing planes and decided to leave things status quo when going through security again in Cincinnati. Needless to say, he was not discovered, but he did pack his “illegal” items into a checked bag for the way home. This all happened last week end.
@Carrie Charney: (Just for the record, he doesn’t smoke.)
Or he tells his Grandmother what she wants to hear. LOL….