TSA Investigating Woman Who Boarded American Airlines Flight From Nashville to Los Angeles Without Ticket

[PeterNSteinmetz]

The TSA fails to stop even casual passengers boarding without documents. What about determined terrorists?

TSA Investigating Woman Who Boarded American Airlines Flight From Nashville to Los Angeles Without Ticket

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is investigating how a woman passed a security checkpoint and boarded a flight at Nashville International Airport (BNA) without a ticket or boarding pass. This incident is the third time in two months that a passenger flew between two destinations...

aeroxplorer.com

 

[Winthrop]

The story seems to omit how she was caught which is interesting. It implied the charade was noticed at some point after takeoff and it is notable that they obviously did not think there was any security concern or they would have diverted the aircraft away from LAX!

With some level of frequency people walk into the commercial terminal at the local airport where I live without going through security. They are usually noticed when they try to go through security the wrong way.

The problem with government programs is that they take on a life of their own. For instance the last civil war pension was paid on May 31st 2020. Perhaps more on point is that is took about a century from the time the US navy transition to steam power exclusively to disband the navy department responsible for sourcing wooden masts for tall ships. So if the TSA was obsolete before it was created, then they have at least another eighty years left.

 

[Nemo]

Did it ever occur to anyone that the TSA let this run as an intelligence operation and they wanted to see how the whole thing would play out? Clearly since the TSA took over airport security highjackings are down a statistically significant figure. It seems more likely that the TSA was monitoring the situation the whole time.

 

[Winthrop]

Did it ever occur to anyone that the TSA let this run as an intelligence operation and they wanted to see how the whole thing would play out? Clearly since the TSA took over airport security highjackings are down a statistically significant figure. It seems more likely that the TSA was monitoring the situation the whole time.

I will address the second part of this first, because at least that is a decent point. I will concede that highjacking are down and that something happened in 2001 to change that. I have not crunched the numbers, but my "gut feeling" is that the decrease is statistically significant, but I would aver that it was the willingness of highjacks to use an airliner as a cruise missile rather than a free ticker to Cuba that changed this. When highjacking became about mass homicide rather than fleeing a country without a ticket the game changed.

 

[PeterNSteinmetz]

Actually hijacking of commercial jets by non crew members for aircraft departing a US airport is not down by a statistically significant amount. It was such a rare occurrence to start with that it would take about 50 years to detect a decrease at reasonable significance level.

 

[rotorwrench]

TSA was obsolete before it was created,

TSA was purely a political answer to the problem. After 9/11 the first attempt to upgrade the domestic airport security utilized the same model the Israelis use for their airport security. However, the powers to be decided this type of scrutiny would upset too many and possibly "infringe" on some personal rights. So in its place we got 60,000 more federal employees at a skill set that allowed what happened above and allows similar lapses to continue to happen.

 

[Winthrop]

Actually hijacking of commercial jets by non crew members for aircraft departing a US airport is not down by a statistically significant amount. It was such a rare occurrence to start with that it would take about 50 years to detect a decrease at reasonable significance level.

As much as I hate saying it, I think it could be argued that the fatalities from highjacking are down. However, I am not sure that matters. These numbers were so low prior to 2001 that improving the floor wax at airports to have greater traction knit have saved more lives from decreasing lethal slip and falls. I think the salient issue might be that that by increasing the transactional costs of commercial flying that we care increasing overall mortality, and for those who care, increasing the carbon footprint of travel.

 

[Winthrop]

TSA was purely a political answer to the problem. After 9/11 the first attempt to upgrade the domestic airport security utilized the same model the Israelis use for their airport security. However, the powers to be decided this type of scrutiny would upset too many and possibly "infringe" on some personal rights. So in its place we got 60,000 more federal employees at a skill set that allowed what happened above and allows similar lapses to continue to happen.

I had the misfortune to go through New Zealand's version of the TSA recently. My carry-on drew the ire of their inspectors. What was interesting about the encounter is that they did not rescan or open my bag, but only asked me how I had enjoyed my stay in New Zealand and then whether I was looking forward to returning to Jackson Mississippi. I responded that I was sorry to be leaving NZ etc then noted I was actually from Jackson Wyoming. He then handed my bag back to me and said I had packed my cameras and laptops too close together which caused a "red flag" in the system. It would seem they simply decided I was not a threat by talking to me. (Peter of course will hate this, but I thanked them for their vigilance and went on to the purgatory lounge)

Now was it is a jobs program, sure, but what intrigued me is that they did the same thing while being polite and efficient within reason.

Granted now in the US the norm is to simply pay a fee to bypass the mess at 121 terminals.

 

[Nemo]

I had the misfortune to go through New Zealand's version of the TSA recently. My carry-on drew the ire of their inspectors. What was interesting about the encounter is that they did not rescan or open my bag, but only asked me how I had enjoyed my stay in New Zealand and then whether I was looking forward to returning to Jackson Mississippi. I responded that I was sorry to be leaving NZ etc then noted I was actually from Jackson Wyoming. He then handed my bag back to me and said I had packed my cameras and laptops too close together which caused a "red flag" in the system. It would seem they simply decided I was not a threat by talking to me. (Peter of course will hate this, but I thanked them for their vigilance and went on to the purgatory lounge)

Now was it is a jobs program, sure, but what intrigued me is that they did the same thing while being polite and efficient within reason.

Granted now in the US the norm is to simply pay a fee to bypass the mess at 121 terminals.

So in essence you are ok with being profiled, forgive me, but your picture shows you have white male privilege. Perhaps if you had been a Palestinian fleeing oppression the conversation might not have gone so well!

 

[Ron Wanttaja]

We can complain about TSA's complicity in this, but please note that the person made it past the gate agents to board the aircraft. The gate agents are controlled by the airline, not the government. I want to know how TSA failed, sure, but really want to know how she waltzed past the gate agents. Most planes are full these days...how was there NOT an argument over an assigned seat?

Ron Wanttaja

 

[Winthrop]

One recent commercial flight I was on was fairly open. (see below) The odd thing here is the dearth of news. I think there might be some embarrassing facet to this like she was working for the TSA

 

[rotorwrench]

It would seem they simply decided I was not a threat by talking to me.

It involved a lot more than just talking to you but that is how the Israelis approach flight security. Within their system, every person a traveler interacts with as they make their way through the airport facility is a trained in some fashion on human "reactions" for lack of a better term. Whether by asking non-descript questions in a particular order or simply observing how a traveler acts, any potential threat could be passively detected well before they get airside.

 

[Winthrop]

It involved a lot more than just talking to you but that is how the Israelis approach flight security. Within their system, every person a traveler interacts with as they make their way through the airport facility is a trained in some fashion on human "reactions" for lack of a better term. Whether by asking non-descript questions in a particular order or simply observing how a traveler acts, any potential threat could be passively detected well before they get airside.

Ok, yeah whatever, I prefer that to a prostate exam. I am sure by scanning my passport, and they are nominally a 5-eyes country, they can see my life. They see my ticket how I paid my visa information etc. So once again, more efficient than the prostate exam.