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TSA Shuts Down Airport, Detains 11 After "Science Project" Found
OverTheGeicoE writes "A group of students and a professor were detained by TSA at Dallas' Love Field. Several of them were led away in handcuffs. What did they do wrong? One of them left a robotic science experiment behind on an aircraft, which panicked a boarding flight crew. The experiment 'looked like a cell phone attached to a remote control car with some exposed wires protruding.' Of course, the false alarm inconvenienced more than the traveling academics. The airport was temporarily shut down and multiple gates were evacuated, causing flight delays and diversions."
Why the "Scare Quotes" in the title? Is someone implying that it was actually a bomb, and not a robot? TFA does not.
The terrorists aren't trying to get on our airplanes. The terrorists are blowing up Planned Parenthood clinics.
Zero.
Number of people nude Xrayed or sexually groped (on their breasts or crotch) or strip-searched or locked in glass jails for carrying breast milk or ..... (this list could go on several pages).
Millions.
I hope none of those machines were malfunctioning and ejected lethal doses. They are never checked. TIME TO END THE TSA. And the Fed (give the power back to the State central banks).
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
They grounded us with science...
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
What kind of moron takes something that "look[s] like a cell phone attached to a remote control car with some exposed wires protruding" onto an airplane?
Hire a Linux system administrator, systems engineer,
How many things actually happened in the entire history of commercial flights before the TSA existed? And why do they still exist in light of that? Sheesh.
Doh! Wasn't logged in for some reason.
I'm as against the TSA as anyone.
But come on. Considering what was found, why should any authority there NOT freak out? The flight crew did.
It's really annoying it had such a large impact but in this case it was I think fully warranted. Even though I think they should have been allowed to enter the plane with the whole kit unscanned, once they left it behind all bets are off.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
What kind of moron takes something that "look[s] like a cell phone attached to a remote control car with some exposed wires protruding" onto an airplane?
What kind of moron LETS SOMEONE take something that look[s] like a cell phone attached to a remote control car with some exposed wires protruding" onto an airplane? I mean, if snow globes are verboten, how in the world could that contraption possibly get on board in the first place?
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
The device obviously got through security in Dallas thus it must not have been a threat. It isn't like that was something that was easily concealed or concealed in a bag if the crew found it. The TSA have stopped exactly zero terrorists while harassing and groping millions innocent people and have multiple lawsuits filed against them costing taxpayers more money then their already ridiculous budget. TSA is a waste of taxpayers money, plain and simple.
Just because you are wrong and I called you out on it doesn't mean I am a Troll.
While not the best decision, I think the point is that he shouldn't have to worry. If it was on the plane, it made it past the TSA, and assuming they did a good job at their theatre, was safe. This whole fiasco is an exercise in how useless and overbearing the security is in airports these days.
Meanwhile, somewhere deep in the Arabian sea .... Osama Bin Laden is laughing his ass off. His face is shot so that is the only thing he got left to laugh with.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Look at the bright side. They probably got their robot back. If it wasn't for the TSA, they'd never have seen it again!
The hilarity is that if the nerds really wanted to play havoc with US air travel, they could, and there's not a damn thing the TSA could do about it.
Okay. These people happened to be flying with something that looks very suspicious. A cellphone wired up to some other electronic device. Okay. Occasionally people do fly with suspicious looking items that are completely innocent. Then these same people "forget" it and leave it on an airplane? When's the last time you forgot a piece of carry-on luggage on a plane? I'm sure it happens occasionally, but when people are flying they are usually careful about such things. Now put the two together. What are the chances that a group of people bring a very suspicious looking electronic device onto a plane and then they all simultaneously forget it there? Isn't it possibly a bit more likely that they were playing some sort of a prank, or trying to test security at the airport and it backfired? Just a thought.
If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
They were released with no charges after the situation was cleared up, right? Also, were the handcuffs really necessary?
Better question - if they let it on the plane, then why didn't TSA ask the flight crew what the thing was instead of treating it like a bomb? Seems somebody should have already known it was on the plane during the flight.
Handcuffs, really? Couldn't this have been solved in a matter of minutes if the TSA just asked a few questions of the students and teacher?
The same with the shooting in Florida. If both guys had just talked/asked questions that teenager would still be alive.
Just to be the devil's advocate, imagine the following scenario.
Professor reaches TSA, shows the package, passes it through X-ray / opens it to show there is no chemical / explosive, and answers questions to the fully satisfaction of TSA (yes I am teacher these are the children I teach...).
Sometime later, someone else (who of course has not been told that there was such teacher with such object in the previous flight) finds the surprise. Even if the artifact was competently investigated by the TSA, the people who found it probably had no way to verify that ---> panic button.
To me, this article is bussiness as usual, and per se (the devil lies in details) it does not show up any incompetence / abuse
Why can't
So the lesson is, if you want to bomb an airplane, enclose your bomb in a smooth, brushed aluminum and/or plastic case?
Palm trees and 8
If it got on the plane, someone checked it somewhere and gave it a thumbs-up. That makes it more likely to be a toy, just like it looked.
Or it could have been placed aboard the aircraft by a crew member, ground support personnel, or any other person with access to the sterile area that intended to do something illegal. To get a job that gives you access to the sterile area takes little more than a 10-year background check, with no ongoing checks. There is always the possibility that someone could turn or be a sleeper long enough to get a job. That is why aircrews and airline employees are supposed to look for and report anything suspicious, because there are always ways to get something past security. Things like this actually do happen on a fairly regular basis, but it usually involves theft or drugs. The aircrew was right to report it.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
That would clearly violate the TSAs guidelines on logic and sanity.
What kind of moron takes something that "look[s] like a cell phone attached to a remote control car with some exposed wires protruding" onto an airplane?
Uh, someone that does not want the device utterly destroyed?
Checked luggage gets the shit beat out of it. Also, very often, security personnel will go through your luggage, and break even more stuff, through plain negligence, or just plain re-packing it poorly.
Here's an interesting info-graphic I saw for the first time today. Pretty much falls in line with the rest of the sentiment here.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
If it got on the plane, someone checked it somewhere and gave it a thumbs-up. That makes it more likely to be a toy, just like it looked.
What's to say that when it passed through security it wasn't a cell phone, an RC car and wires with plugs on them - in different bags and/or from different people? I hate to be defending the TSA, but in this case I think it was perfectly reasonable to suspect this could be an airport/airplane assembled bomb. "Forgetting" it on board might be a way to make it blow up on the next flight rather than become a suicide bomber, honestly I have a hard time finding fault with suspected terrorist bombers being cuffed. Yeah of course it sucks for everyone affected when it turns out to be an innocent mistake but if they didn't react to this, what do you expect them to react to?
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
So if I put coloured epoxy over the wires so they cannot be seen ...
The point is that the people claiming that this looks like "a handmade explosive device" do not know what "a handmade explosive device" looks like.
It just looks UNUSUAL so they panicked.
It was 2002, and I was taking a course in digital electronics. One of the well-known projects for this course was to build a digital clock from regular 74xx and 74xxx IC's. We were to complete the projects on our own breadboards, and we could, if we wanted to keep the result, buy our own electronic components as well. I bought my own electronics, and as a result, could work on it when I was not necessarily in the lab. I was in a fairly reclusive hallway in the school around lunctime, testing out a circuit I had designed which would get incorporated into my final project, and I was using some LED's for feedback, which flickered quickly as my circuit ran. I was concentrating on what I was doing, and was surprised when someone from campus security came up to me and grabbed me by the shoulder. I spent the next 15 minutes in the office of campus security explaining what I was doing, and as it happened, one of the people from campus security knew the professor and could vouch for the story I was giving. They had called my professor for the course anyways, who came to security, chuckled at the whole incident, because he recognized me immediately, and said that he knew me and that I was okay.
Later that afternoon, during the class lecture, the prof relayed the anecdote to everybody with much amusement, not mentioning exactly who it was who, evidently, got him called down to the security office because they thought one of his students was building a bomb. He advised us all that we should be building our projects in the lab only, and not in the hallways of the school.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
If everybody on Slashdot gets an old phone, opens it up and leaves it on a plane...
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
If everybody on Slashdot gets an old phone, opens it up and leaves it on a plane...
Then everybody on slashdot will get detained, probed and then TSA will request additional funding based on the spikes in detaining/probing/confiscations.
Seriously, there is no positive outcome here. I think those people were handcuffed to create an appearance of hard work. TSA hasn't caught a single terrorist in over a decade of existence. The fact that they are still getting (increased) funding is hard to imagine.
TSA hasn't caught a single terrorist in over a decade of existence. The fact that they are still getting (increased) funding is hard to imagine.
That means it's working!
None of us know everything. Therefore we're all naïve.
This isn't fear, it's pure stupid. They got it through airport security, on to a plane, flew to their destination, and *now*, suddenly, it's a f***ing danger to the entire state of Texas. Those TSA morons just showed stupid they are and how much they can over react. There used to be this thing called "Lost and Found", but today, if you leave anything anywhere around an airport, you're a Terrorist(tm).
Lisa, I want to buy your rock.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
My feeling is that those TSA pigs wouldn't be happier. They found justification for their crap existence and secured some more of future funding for their parasitic operations
You know the US is no longer a First World country when a government agency can justify its existence by causing a huge economic loss for no real reason.