A passenger departing Portland airport cleared TSA with a meat cleaver in their carry-on that screeners didn’t notice. They boarded Delta flight 3233 to Salt Lake City where a flight attendant noticed it in their bag.
Newly-released surveillance footage shows passengers seated and waiting, the pilot stepping off the plane and speaking with airport staff, and then Mr. Cleaver being escorted off the aircraft by police.
Everyone was deplaned and forced to go through re-screening even though the cleaver was found and the passenger who brought it removed, so customers were punished for the TSA’s malfeasance. This process took between 2.5 and 3 hours.
The customer explained that he brought the cleaver because he got “a good deal” on it. He did not face any charges. In fact, he was allowed to board another flight.
The TSA agent who missed the cleaver continues to work it remains employed as a screener though the agency says they’ve received ‘additional training.’ Maybe having the government both regulating security practices and doing the screening themselves (i.e. serving as their own regulator) isn’t a best practice, after all.
The only data that the government has released suggests TSA doesn’t do a very good job identifying contraband proceeding through its checkpoints. When internal testing found 90% and 95% failure rates detecting threats, the government just stopped releasing the data. We do know that if they’d meaningfully improved, they’d be crowing about it – and they aren’t.
It’s worth noting that a United Airlines passenger boarded with a loaded gun, sat in first class, and bodycam footage shows police stormed the plane to yank him off. On the other hand, one passenger brought a gun through security and faced no consequences… because he worked for TSA.
It’s my firm opinion that no government department or large business should be allowed to self-police/certify. That’s the very definition of conflict of interest. Companies have outside accountants verify their finances as a matter of course. Why not have similar reviews for the rest of the business? Look what happened at Boeing as just one example. Having an outside review would have cost Boeing far less than the debacle they sustained.
@Greggb57 — Might’ve saved money money, and also, more importantly, hundreds of lives in Indonesia and Ethiopia… instead, Boeing did the ‘intimidate whistleblowers’ and ‘the bribe the corrupt government to drip fines and criminal charges’ strategies. This is a troubled era to live through. Lots of work to do to fix things. We can and must overcome this.
(Not sure why the duplicate, but, I guess I could’ve gone with mun-muns.)
No harm, no foul. Truly a victimless “crime”. Pathetic Americans frightened silly of their shadows. No longer a country composed “of the free and the brave”. Pitiful. Pathetic.!
And, @Gary Leff, seriously, nothing on the partial-shutdown affecting TSA, CBP, which most certainly affects commercial air travel? Yeah, meat cleavers… no, you right, focus on that…