Max: For Your Safety
The checkpoint area was immediately closed as Bomb Appraisal Officer Timothy D. Smith inspected the item and spoke with the passenger. The item in question was determined to be an empty metal bottle and a home-made battery pack, consisting of 28 rechargeable batteries connected by multiple resistors and held together in two layers with a silicone-based adhesive.
The passenger was an engineer and said he built the battery to power his DVD player for the long flight to Hawaii. After recognizing that the item could be seen by other passengers as a threat, the man surrendered it to Supervisory TSO Raiford Patterson and was allowed to board the flight.
That is, the TSA determined something was not dangerous, confiscated anyway and is actually so proud of this they announced it on their website.
And BTW, despite the carefully staged photo, the battery pack was not wired to the bottle in any way.
The passenger was an engineer and said he built the battery to power his DVD player for the long flight to Hawaii. After recognizing that the item could be seen by other passengers as a threat, the man surrendered it to Supervisory TSO Raiford Patterson and was allowed to board the flight.
That is, the TSA determined something was not dangerous, confiscated anyway and is actually so proud of this they announced it on their website.
And BTW, despite the carefully staged photo, the battery pack was not wired to the bottle in any way.
posted by Max Dobberstein at 7/30/2008 02:23:00 PM
1 Comments:
Is anyone at the switch at the TSA?
I agree - I can't believe they put this up on their site. "We know it's not dangerous, but we're afraid of the other passengers losing their minds!"
And, hold up! If I was standing at a terminal, scanning bags, and I saw something that looked like a distributor cap from a Ford F-150 come through, I would stop the belt, too - and I have not a speck of training in this field. I do however have eyes and a working brain.
This is one of the dumbest things they have produced - and they're proud of it!
IMHO, it would have been smarter for them to put a TSA approved sticker on the thing and sent the guy through. Or, confiscated the thing and not advertised their stupidity. "We can't find real bombs, several tests have proven this, but we know how to confiscate bulk batteries when we see them!"
I can see not wanting to panic other passengers - but this is stupid.
When are they going to put plugs on planes so that we can run our personal entertainment devices without the need for a backpack of batteries? Of course, if they did that they would probably add $100 to your ticket. (They have them on Amtrak Trains!)
Hey, Republicans?! Why not deregulate a few more industries? It has worked a-fuck-mazingly well for the air lines!
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