Exclusive: Louisiana Rep Garret Graves, chairman of the House aviation subcommittee, admits it’s concerning that the TSA has no idea how American tourists are managing to accidentally take ammo onto flights unnoticed. James Liddell reports
    • AbidanYre@lemmy.worldEnglish
      53·
      4 months ago

      But you can be damn sure they’ll catch that 5oz bottle of shampoo you’ve got.

      BTW: your link is broken because you have a 9 at the beginning

    • Empricorn@feddit.nlEnglish
      38·
      4 months ago

      Yet they never, ever fail to miss the banana I have in my carry-on for manual review. They very literally only look for the lowest-hanging fruit in scans. And that’s not a joke, they focus on the easiest to do and accept or reject.

    • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
      37·
      4 months ago

      I brought a 3-inch credit card blade (acquired at a trade show, with some tech company logo on it) through the airport four consecutive times without even realizing it.

      I found it while packing for another trip, and I decided to gut my overly-thick wallet and realized that I’d been carrying it around everywhere, including through courtrooms and other government buildings that X-ray everything I bring every time I pass through as a contractor.

      So yeah, a knife inside my wallet went through about 50 X-ray machines at federal facilities completely undetected, and I unknowingly carried it through all sorts of places where it is extremely illegal to have a knife. They always scolded me though if I tried to bring anything made of glass, like a coke bottle or something, because it could be used as a weapon.

      Pictured:

    • sp3tr4l@lemmy.zip
      34·
      4 months ago

      Yeah, wtf do they mean ‘they don’t know how?’.

      The TSA is probably the only employer in America worse than Boeing when it comes to employees giving a shit about doing their jobs and actually doing them well.

      Both organizations promote incompetent ass kissers over those who actually give a shit, and both orgs also have a massive culture of making up excuses for why something that was supposed to happen did not.

      Oh right, both also have absurd amounts of paperwork that ‘ensures’ policy was followed, but seeing as everyone hates you if you actually try to keep up with it, most people just focus on a few main things and sign off on anything.

      • 9point6@lemmy.world
        9·
        4 months ago

        I mean “they don’t know how” doesn’t have to mean this is an exceptional case

        They could just be ubiquitously incompetent and they don’t know how a lot of stuff happens

        • sp3tr4l@lemmy.zip
          5·
          4 months ago

          I mean it in the sense of:

          Every job I’ve ever worked, if someone asks ‘how did this happen?’, that is a question that has an actual answer within usually 30 seconds, maximum 30 minutes.

          I basically agree with you, I’m phrasing it as if I were some kind of competent person asking where a whole bunch of taxpayer money is going.

          • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
            3·
            4 months ago

            There are times when it takes longer, such as when Fukushima had a meltdown. The thirty-second answer only starts to explain how it happened, the thirty-minute one makes you start to realize that a good part of it is because people fucked up, and the full answer, which requires going over reports since the construction of the plant shows you just how comprehensive the fuck-ups were and why it was only a matter of time for something that catastrophic to happen.

            But yes, usually these things can be figured out pretty quickly. It doesn’t take nuclear science to figure out why they can’t do their job.

            • sp3tr4l@lemmy.zip
              1·
              4 months ago

              I totally agree with you that systemic failures require a systemic evaluation to figure out what actually happened. Most of the jobs I’ve worked have been as an analyst of one kind or another, so I of course know that many things do not have quick answers.

              So yes technically I should have added some kind of qualifier, but you seem to get that I mean that common, routine job functions or system functions pretty much always should have fairly simple explanations as to why something routine happens or does not.

              So, it takes me a while to do a root cause analysis of a quarter or years worth of one kind of failure in a complex process or another, but I very rarely have to manually investigate some specific totally unknown thing in person, as the system is (or should) be designed in such a way that tbis stuff is tracked and easily analyzed.

              Contrast that with: Why isn’t the report released yet?

              Oh, because a data set I need access to is offline right now, or some dumbass changed the access creds without informing me prior, I emailed them a week ago, and they have not responded.

              That is a simple answer.

    • nilloc@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      2·
      4 months ago

      I flew across country and back twice with a pack of super sharp Olfa snap off replacement blades that if forgotten were tucked into the bottom of my laptop bag.

    • Khrux@ttrpg.networkEnglish
      2·
      4 months ago

      I once lived and worked in a small store in rural Australia. When I left the job, I threw my box cutter in my backpack at the end of my shift without thinking.

      They flew me back to the nearest city when I left, then from there I flew to Bali and back, then eventually I flew home. Every time I flew. I used that backpack as my carry on luggage. It was found when I landed after that final flight. I’d totally forgotten it was in there, and it had been scanned for all of those flights.

  • JayleneSlide@lemmy.world
    110·
    4 months ago

    I travel a lot for work. US Customs and the TSA are absolutely a sick joke. I could easily write a novella on the extremely poor training of TSA employees. I have a small permanent retainer (read: braces); about 25% of the time, that is considered suspicious, and I get an enhanced inspection. “Ya know, I could just open my mouth and show you what’s in there.”

    The TSA always determines that my juggling balls are suspicious, so I never pack them in carry-on anymore. I have NEXUS, yet I always get an enhanced inspection on return to the US. Literally every other country to which I have flown just waves me through, even before I got Pre-Check/NEXUS/Global Entry.

    My partner had her rigging knife in her backpack on a flight out and back. She was unpacking and found it in her backpack after the trip. Good catch, TSA.

    And the absolute frosting on the TSA shit sandwich: one of my close friends owns a private security firm. His company was approached by the TSA to assist in security audits at a major international airport. He and his team were contracted to “smuggle” fake firearms through TSA checkpoints, any way they could. The TSA repeatedly failed to detect the firearms for each of five audits. The TSA division (district? regional?) manager, frustrated at his group’s 100% failure rate, determined that my friend’s company must have specialized criminal training, and everyone who worked that contract were put on the no-fly list. It took him about 18 months to unfuck that mess for him and his employees.

    I had written a few more paragraphs about TSA hassles, but I think y’all get the picture.

    • TheRealKuni@lemmy.worldEnglish
      64·
      4 months ago

      The TSA division (district? regional?) manager, frustrated at his group’s 100% failure rate, determined that my friend’s company must have specialized criminal training, and everyone who worked that contract were put on the no-fly list.

      What in the fuck?

      • JayleneSlide@lemmy.world
        17·
        4 months ago

        If my juggling of balls catches your fancy, you might also be interested to know that I also smoke meat, play the flute, and churn butter. 😆

      • azimir@lemmy.ml
        10·
        4 months ago

        I’ve carried a set of leather wrapped juggling balls on flights off and on since the 90’s. They used to make every X-ray reader twitch out. They’re about the right size for bad items (explosives, grenades), and I have three, not just one.

        Normally it would get a quick search, a moment of confusion, and then no worries.

        Once when going through the old airport in Berlin, I got searched at the second checkpoint, they brought out the balls to me, so I started juggling them and did a routine. It was really quiet so I was the only passenger in sight. That was the only time I’ve performed in front of an audience who was carrying machine guns.

    • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      4 months ago

      the only surprising thing in this story is that no one got their genitals full on cupped and brushed.

      I’ve had 3 different TSA agents reach down the front of my pants and either full on grab my junk or very heavily brush the back of their hands over it (through underwear)

  • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee
    50·
    4 months ago

    Isn’t TSA just a money-grab?

    With no actual oversight, requirements, or sanctions, that’s just transfer of public money to some random wage-slaves and private subcontractors (like for the all-so-special equipment they must have, as well as tons of gloves and lube they consume daily).

    Im sure AI could do racial profiling just as racially biased as them, and also fail at detecting any real threats. And Im sure I’ve seen some ‘cavity search’-like robots online that could be deployed.

  • billwashere@lemmy.worldEnglish
    40·
    4 months ago

    I know this one… it’s because the TSA sucks and isn’t anything more than security theater.

    • SSTF@lemmy.world
      9·
      4 months ago

      What’s surreal is being in a security line that is so backed up that the TSA on duty decide to tell people to keep their shoes on, and they open up the old fashioned metal detector to supplement the body scanner just to get people through faster.

      Straight up confirmation that none of what they do matters.

      • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.worldEnglish
        8·
        4 months ago

        you mean the devices that were stupid and no one wanted to buy because they were mostly useless, until suddenly 9/11 and the investors in the company Republicans demanded they be installed in every airport and bus station?

  • cmbabul@lemmy.world
    37·
    4 months ago

    I put a 5 inch blade in a bag I used for work that I totally forgot about, for 2 full years and flew all over the US without anyone calling me on it. I’m glad that TSA provides employment for so many people but they are in fact a joke

    • Dempf@lemmy.zip
      5·
      4 months ago

      I would probably be fine with TSA as a jobs program, except I really don’t like being yelled at by power tripping agents just for taking my laptop out, or for leaving it in my bag. Because no airport is the same and they all seem to make things up when it comes to policy. To be fair most agents are pretty chill, but some out there definitely enjoy the power trip.

  • pewter@lemmy.world
    25·
    4 months ago

    And yet I’ve had to throw out a whole bottle of St. Ives lotion. Which country is threatened by me having silky smooth skin?

  • isgleas@lemmy.ml
    24·
    4 months ago

    I think they are quite consistent, as a foreigner, when I travel to the US I get the random inspection every.single.time

    /s

  • 3ntranced@lemmy.world
    18·
    4 months ago

    A hypothetical version of myself may have worked in an International Airport as a security lead. That hypothetical version would have to pass through general passenger TSA and Border checkpoint dozens of times a day. They also may have always been carrying dab pens on him and his coworkers might have on several occasions just carried handguns through that they might have forgotten on their persons.

    Yeah Airports are to security as Ant traps are to an exterminator. Lotta smoke and mirrors. Most cameras are non functioning or just straight up not wired in the first place.

    • Lag@lemmy.world
      6·
      4 months ago

      Can confirm hypothetical dab pens. And joyrides in the electric carts next to the planes taking off.

  • VelvetStorm@lemmy.world
    14·
    4 months ago

    Just a few months ago, my wife and I went on vacation, and she had my mushroom hunting knife with like a 4 or 5-inch blade on it in her purse. The purse went through scanners and everything and no one said a fucking thing. Didn’t realize we had the knife until we were on the plane in the air, and she went to get gum out.