MacBook Air stumps TSA agents, owner misses flight

[Rico]

This is kind of funny and sad both....

The suspiciously thin, port-free laptop sends airport security into a tizzy, until cooler heads prevail. Maybe it's time for some tech briefings at the TSA, no?
On his blog, programmer Michael Nygard (by way of the Unofficial Apple Weblog) writes that during a recent trip through the airport, his solid-state MacBook Air stopped TSA agents—puzzled by its lack of rear-facing ports or a standard hard drive—in their tracks.

Nygard said the agents put him and his suspicious "device" in a holding cubicle as security staffers huddled nearby, looking at X-ray printouts of the sinister-looking Air and scratching their heads.

A younger TSA agent—who, apparently, was aware of Apple's newest laptop—tried explaining to the group that the Air uses solid-state memory in place of a traditional hard drive. The senior staffer, however, was still reluctant to let it go: "New products on the market? They haven't been TSA approved. Probably shouldn't be permitted," Nygard writes.

Finally, after booting up the Air and running a program, the agents let Nygard go, he said—but only after he'd missed his flight.

I've been hearing stories like these all too often, which leads to the question: how exactly are TSA agents being trained, anyway? How about, I dunno, some regular briefings on the latest gadgets that might be making their way through security checkpoints? And while TSA agents are wasting time fussing with laptops, undercover investigators with bomb parts in their bags have been sailing though security checkpoints.

Anyone else out there get stopped by airport security because of a "suspicious" gadget in their luggage? Feel free to vent right here.


source:
http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/patterson/14047

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Wow, that sucks.  Time to get some agents updated on technology me thinks.

King

[sheldor]

I read about it this morning.   Have these guys been like locked up somewhere over the past few months ?

[Bryancd]

Apple's products are so innovative it's like showing fire to a caveman!!! ;)

[X]

Okay, I think I'll chime in here. I worked for the TSA for a while and had to be trained to do the whole baggage thing before I moved on to other duties. This incident wasn't about the TSA's lack of training. They are trained to the best that they can be, but at the same time they have to be responsible for going through thousands of pieces of luggage each day at each airport.

People want to joke about their jobs, but their job is to protect lives. Many people go to work each day with the idea of not letting something on a plane that they wouldn't let their parents or loved ones then get on.

There are guns hidden in teddy bears, explosives that look like cotton candy, and thousands of other ways for a person to build a device that could take out a plane.

They are given technology to combat these threats, but like all government projects, they are outsourced to the lowest bidder. They can't get the best of the best because there aren't enough planes falling from the sky.

People are more concerned with making their flight and assuming that things will be safe than giving the people of the TSA the time and the resources to get things done.

People don't want to be discomforted and they would rather risk someone blowing up a plane with three ounces of a liquid compound explosive than have to leave their tooth paste in their carry on.

Every bag that goes on a plane has to be checked and that includes the people that get to the airport only minutes before their flight.

They are trained to identify laptops and most do a good job. They are also trained to know that an improvised explosive needs only four parts to work.

Timer. Power source. Charge. Detonator.

Every laptop and cell phone that goes on a plane has three of the four. Sheet explosive can be hidden behind a LCD display or in the case of the laptop.

If things look funny, you stop and deal with it. You don't best guess and wave someone though when a mistake could kill someone. If they did let him go and the plane did blow, I don't think anyone out there would be okay with that and say "Well he thought is was a MAC, it's not their fault."

They did their jobs and if someone had to miss a plane for it, maybe they should have just gotten their earlier because they KNEW that their laptop was something new and might cause an issue.

The TSA didn't cause him to miss his plane, it was his lack of foresight that the new device might cause a problem.

[X]

Also just wanted to clear up one more thing. Parts of bombs make it on a plane every day. As long as there is no explosive in that combination, it's allowed to go through. Can you imagine the outrage if the TSA denied all bomb parts to be allowed on a plane? No cellphone, PDAs, laptops, watches, or any sort of battery powered technology?

Things are allowed through because the TSA still serves the public and in most cases the public prefers happy and ignorant to safe and inconvenienced.