The wacky people who fly

Posted at 6:44 PM on April 27, 2012 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Aviation

Quick quiz: Which of these two things is a security risk to the nation's airlines?

A:

B:

The correct answer is B. It is prohibited from an airplane. "A" is not even though it looks like the innards of a bomb

It is, in fact, a checked bag at Newark, according to the TSA blog. Like today's "suspicious package" at the Humphrey Terminal at Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport, the TSA's explosive detection team has to "clear" the bag, which turned out to be the inside of a VCR, a VHS tape along with 23 smartphones each individually wrapped in aluminum foil and taped to the unit.

While it, like today's bag, disrupted things, there's nothing illegal about putting the guts of a VCR, a VHS tape, and 23 smartphone phones in aluminum foil into a suitcase.

The shaving cream? That's not allowed.

Every week, the TSA blog posts pictures of all the nonsense people try to get on airplanes, and every week the reader can only shake his/her head and wonder what on earth is going on?

And every week, the blog includes pictures of phony or neutralized hand grenades; so many, in fact, that you wonder if one of these days a real one will slip through.

Why was a passenger at MSP traveling with capped PVC pipe with a "granular material" inside. He said it was "water filtration," of course.

I'm guessing that contraption will be featured on the TSA blog next Friday.

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Comments (3)

The TSA is not working but is too entrenched for any change or dissolution. We are not safer because of it. End. It. Now.

Posted by MikeB | April 28, 2012 10:15 AM

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Makes me wonder if some of these are actually in cahoots with the next set of bombers/terrorists. Are they testing the system, seeing what gets caught and how often? I may be paranoid, but it makes me think they're finding the lower limit of detection by running through various suspicious looking but innocuous items - who knows what hings get through that are being logged by testers that will lead to the device that is the next strike.
Not a happy theory at all, but possible, yes?...

Posted by Ralf | April 28, 2012 11:07 AM

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Bob, I love News Cut.

And, it's "wacky" not "whacky"

thanks.

Betty

Posted by Betty Tisel | April 28, 2012 7:30 PM

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