Meanwhile, a kid who didn't know about TSA procedures of the dangers of being a stowaway, managed to get on a plane in the US. If it was a determined suicide bomber, that plane would have been blown to bits. Instead, we get this sad story from BoingBoing:
The mangled body of a 16-year-old boy from North Carolina mysteriously dropped from the sky down to a Boston suburb last month. Authorities now believe the teen breached airport security, and managed to hide himself inside the wheel well of a US Airways Boeing 737. He is believed to have then fallen to his death as the plane lowered its landing gear on approach to Boston's Logan Airport.It happened because billions are being put into security theatre while hard thinking about threats and real resources to prevent attacks are wasted crotch searching Americans in endless lines at airports.
The corpse of Delvonte Tisdale, 16, was found in a quiet neighborhood in Milton, Mass., Nov. 15, below a flight path to Logan.
"It appears more likely than not that Mr. Tisdale was able to breach airport security and hide in the wheel well of a commercial jet airliner without being detected by airport security," Norfolk County District Attorney William R. Keating said at a news conference Friday afternoon.
Mr. Keating said he alerted federal authorities and the Charlotte Airport that the teenager was able to breach airport security and get onto the plane. While the case is a tragedy, Mr. Keating said, it also underscores fears that someone with malicious intention could do the same thing.
At the risk of pointing out what is very much apparent: all the TSA's invasive body-scanning and crotch-groping failed to prevent this. What if this kid was a suicide bomber stowaway, strapped with explosives? How did this happen?
2 comments:
"a kid who didn't know about TSA procedures of the dangers of being a stowaway, managed to get on a plane in the US." It is not the job of TSA to make clear to stowaways the dangers they face. Whether the motive of the stowaway was to commit a theft of services, or an act of terrorism, it is clear that Mr. Tisdale acted outside the law. His fate should not influence discussion of aviation security policy, except, perhaps, as a positive example. His fate resulted from his actions, and must be considered just.
The stowaway was a threat to the airplane. I'm not saying somebody needs to pull stowaways aside and educate them on dangers. The danger I'm pointing out is to the plane, the passengers, and crew. That stowaway could have been a terrorist. You misunderstood the point of the post. I don't care about Tisdale. I care about effective security and the stowaway demonstrated that TSA failed completely.
TSA has a responsibility for the safety of the airplane whether the threat is from a passenger, the pilot, the crew, the ground crew, the cargo, or stowaways. For the people on the plane, if they get blown up, they aren't going to quibble over whether it was because a terrorist got on by walking through the screening stands of TSA or whether the bomber pretended to be a caterer and got access to the plane or whether the terrorist crawled up into a wheel well and clung to it until the plane got airborne and then blew up his bomb. A bomb is a bomb is a bomb. TSA should be protecting the passengers from all threats, not just grandmothers or four year olds with tickets.
The criticism of security theatre is precisely that security has to be 100%. It can't be "just for show". Having guys with guns stand around with big fancy technology and x-rays isn't "security" if you aren't making sure that uninspected people sneak onto the plane as a baggage handler, cleaning staff, or a stowaway. That's why this example is so shocking. It demonstrates that despite the huge amounts of monies spend and all the fancy technology, TSA has not yet got a comprehensive security system that effectively guards against all threats.
Now I'm willing to admit that 100% security is probably unrealizable because it is too expensive. But to have a "system" in place that doesn't notice an unauthorized person approaching a plane says that system is ineffective. Why waste all the money on uniformed people rummaging through suitcases and patting people down if they aren't going to plug such an obvious hole as an unauthorized person getting access to the plane?
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