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Article, they are trying to be careful.

A Runaway Situation in Seattle: 9-Year-Old Gets Past Airport Security and Flies to Texas

...
At the Sea-Tac airport, Semaj did not have a reservation, nor did he have a means of buying a ticket. But he single-handedly conned Southwest Airlines and the federal Transportation Security Administration into allowing him to board a flight to San Antonio via Phoenix.

And that has annoyed Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.), in whose district Semaj reluctantly lives.

"We have spent millions of dollars and inconvenienced the American public mightily trying to make air travel safe," Dicks said. "If a 9-year-old can exploit this security system, we are going to have to look into the procedures."
...

This might belong on this thread

EU wants to keep limits on U.S. passenger data use

The TSA wishes you all a Happy Valentine's Day with a logo for the holidays:

"Gordon is not your typical teenager falling in and out of love (he is 90 and his American fiancée is 75) and what separates them is not the vast Atlantic Ocean but the pedantic, over-zealous US security officials that have slapped a six-month ban of Mr Barker for exceeding his visa by a day or two.

Mr Barker is adamant it was a genuine mistake. He explains that after contracting cancer he was forced to make several emergency visits back to Britain for medical treatment and had miscalculated the number of days he had left on his six-month visa. But rules are rules according to unswerving customs officials at Las Vegas airport.

Despite tearful protests and pleading letters Mr Barker was told in no uncertain terms that he was barred from setting foot on US soil for six months. There is no redress, even for a lovesick 90-year-old engaged to elderly US citizen."

link

LSD as Therapy? Write about It, Get Barred from US
BC psychotherapist denied entry after border guard googled his work.

Andrew Feldmar, a well-known Vancouver psychotherapist, rolled up to the Blaine border crossing last summer as he had hundreds of times in his career. At 66, his gray hair, neat beard, and rimless glasses give him the look of a seasoned intellectual. He handed his passport to the U.S. border guard and relaxed, thinking he would soon be with an old friend in Seattle. The border guard turned to his computer and googled "Andrew Feldmar."

The psychotherapist's world was about to turn upside down.

...

...Three hours later, the official motioned him into a small, barren room with an American flag. He was sitting on one side and Feldmar was on the other. The official said that under the Homeland Security Act, Feldmar was being denied entry due to "narcotics" use. LSD is not a narcotic substance, Feldmar tried to explain, but an entheogen. The guard wasn't interested in technicalities. He asked for a statement from Feldmar admitting to having used LSD and he fingerprinted Feldmar for an FBI file.


OK, so the guy did LSD 40 years ago, wrote about it, and is now effectively permanently barred from entering the US. Imagine a world where this 'rule' was consistently applied to everyone, a world where any prior drug use (yet no criminal record) no matter how long ago meant that folks could not visit another neighbouring, friendly country to see friends and family.

DHS + Google = 1984

As from March this year, only liquids 100 ml (3 oz) or less may be taken with you onto the plane. Baby formula and breast milk, liquids and gels for life-support and certain medical conditions are allowed subject to certain conditions.

Beverages brought from home or purchased before reaching security checkpoint in containers larger than 100ml (3oz) are not permitted.

No longer can you take your thermos filled with coffee/hot chocolate etc. with you. Bottles of water (600ml) bought from home must be emptied out. Now I'm all for making our skies a safer place to travel, but forcing me to have to buy a bottle of water when I can easily bring one from home for free is a bit much.

Anyway fuller details can be found at
tsa permitted and prohibited items


Have a nice day, Whistler.


If you can keep a sense of humour and see the funny side of life, you will never be old. SMC.

California Man May Go to Prison for Kissing on a Plane

A California man may pay with prison time for a public display of affection on a plane.

Carl Persing was convicted Thursday of interfering with flight attendants and crew members after he and his girlfriend, Dawn Sewell, were seen "embracing, kissing and acting in a manner that made other passengers uncomfortable," according to a criminal complaint.

Director Mike Figgis detained: 'Shoot a Pilot' taken literally

Everyone in Los Angeles knows that when you are to "shoot a pilot", it involves grips, a gaffer, location managers and other key crew. Apparently this is a fact lost with the TSA bunch at Los Angeles International Airport.

quote:

Originally posted by static:
California Man May Go to Prison for Kissing on a Plane

You forgot the best part: "According to an FBI indictment, Persing's face was pressed to Sewell's vaginal area during the September Southwest Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Raleigh, N.C. When a flight attendant gave them a second warning, Persing reacted angrily ... "

Does that qualify for membership in the mile-high club?

TSA detains woman over infant's sippy cup
..The incident started when Monica, who left the Secret Service to raise a family, was stopped while going through airport security because there was water in her son's sippy cup. The sippy cup was seized by TSA. Monica wanted the cup back because the sippy cup was the only way her son would drink -- and it was a long flight between Washington, DC and Reno, Nevada where she was going for a family reunion. If you've ever had a toddler you understand about sippy cups...As I was escorted out of security by TSA and a police officer, I unscrewed the cup to drink the water, which accidentally spilled because I was so upset with the situation.

"At this point, I was detained against my will by the police officer and threatened to be arrested for endangering other passengers with the spilled 3 to 4 ounces of water. I was ordered to clean [up] the water...

What's really interesting about this story is that the TSA posted on their website the first ten minutes of security camera footage of the 40 minute long incident. I actually watched it and it does not seem to prove or disprove anything. Lots of hoopla in the blog-o-sphere on this story...

Woman Says Breast Milk Kept Her Off Plane

(CBS) CHICAGO A Chicago area woman says she was kept off a plane for carrying three ounces of breast milk.

Cheryl Cirillo-Tarica, said she planned to board an American Airlines flight from Chicago's O'Hare Airport to Pittsburgh for a business trip this past Monday. That flight was canceled, forcing her to wait several hours for another flight.

Cirillo-Tarica said she came to the TSA security checkpoint with a bag containing three ounces of breast milk she had just pumped, and was told she could not board the plane unless she threw it away.

"This is not right,"

DES MOINES - Cecilia Beaman is a 57-year-old grandmother, a principal at Pacific Middle School in Des Moines, and as of Sunday is also a suspected terrorist.

From Wired's 27b/6: The Security Saga of the Handmade iPod Charger

"A good true story. Techie...Ramon Burke enters airport checkpoint with a bag full of gear, ranging from cell phone sync cable to handmade video iPod battery booster pack made from a mint can. Screener notices the latter and gets a little freaked out, Transportation Security Administration screener-style. Which means bring on the explosive residue swabs, butt checks and metal-detecting wands..."

Burke's tale is told in the first person on his website: www.natch.net/stuff/TSA/

"We've discovered a 4.5 hour time frame each night when virtually anything can be brought into the secure side of Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. There's no metal detector, no X-ray machine, and it's apparently not a problem."

http://www.abc15.com/content/news/investigators/story.a...16-9098-4c35d8b5ce38

quote:

Originally posted by braslvr:
"We've discovered a 4.5 hour time frame each night when virtually anything can be brought into the secure side of Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport....

Well, looks like that news report has kicked up a storm.

TSA to make security changes at Sky Harbor

"The TSA has placed the Federal Security Director at Sky Harbor on administrative leave. The TSA also says it will resume 24-hour screening of airport employees immediately tonight at all airport security checkpoints, while procedures are under review."

Whooo hooo! Score one for Phoenix! Not sure what any terrorist would bomb here though.

Stories:

original

reader feedback

so, one guy says:
"your article seemed to mock what we as screeners do".
Ya think?

Poll: Travelers dislike TSA as much as IRS

"Have terrorists succeeded in making us that scared of each other?"