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Man Walks Past Security Screening Staring At iPad, Causing Airport Evacuation

Posted by samzenpus on from the paying-attention dept.

First time accepted submitter chentiangemalc writes While Australia is on "high alert" for terror threats a man walked past a Sydney Airport security screening while engrossed in his iPad and delayed flights for an hour. From the article: "This event was captured on CCTV and unnerved officials so much that they evacuated passengers. As the Sydney Morning Herald reported, the man found himself (or, perhaps, didn't) going into the terminal through an exit passage that clearly was convenient for him, but less convenient for the hordes of passengers who not only had to be removed from Terminal 3, but also re-screened. A spokeswoman for Qantas told the Morning Herald: 'The man disembarked a flight and left. It appears he wasn't paying attention, was looking at his iPad, forgot something and walked back past (the security area).'"

15 of 217 comments (clear)

  1. Walked past Security Theatre by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm so glad that so many people were able to participate in the extended season of Security Theatre. Too bad the iPad patron missed out. Well, at least at first...

    1. Re:Walked past Security Theatre by houstonbofh · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And nice to know we are holding back the terrorists with a security force that can not stop people known to walk into walls, poles, and fountains...

    2. Re:Walked past Security Theatre by lgw · · Score: 5, Funny

      Clearly the solution is to put a fountain in the security exit corridor to trap screen-lookers before they can cross the security line!

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    3. Re:Walked past Security Theatre by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 5, Funny

      Isn't it brilliant? We don't even need any real terrorists any more, we're so ready to terrorise ourselves that they've become redundant.

  2. No he didn't by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 5, Insightful

    " a man walked past a Sydney Airport security screening while engrossed in his iPad and delayed flights for an hour."

    TFA implies he caused the delay, when in fact incompetent airport security staff caused the delay.

    --
    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
    1. Re:No he didn't by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Apparently the only thing you have to do to get past ultra tight airport security is not pay attention to almost anything whatsoever.

    2. Re:No he didn't by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's right, the guy with the Apple was just bending the rules...

    3. Re:No he didn't by Jeremi · · Score: 5, Insightful

      TFA implies he caused the delay, when in fact incompetent airport security staff caused the delay.

      I'll go you one further, and suggest that inadequate airport design caused the delay.

      In particular, hiring a human being to stare at a hallway for 8 hours a day to make sure nobody walks this way instead of that way is not a good design. People -- even well-trained, competent people, with the best intentions -- are notoriously bad at doing mind-numbingly tedious tasks like this for hours at a time.

      Machines, on the other hand, could be employed to do the same job more effectively and reliably. It doesn't even need to be particularly high-tech: a simple one-way turnstile (perhaps augmented with a video camera to sound an alarm if the turnstile is tampered with or somehow bypassed) would do a more reliable job, and as a side benefit would not need to be paid a salary.

      --


      I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
    4. Re:No he didn't by lgw · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Ahh, the "we just need to educate our users" school of engineering. That always ends well.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    5. Re:No he didn't by hey! · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Exactly. Security screwed up, and then they HAD to deal with it. It's not mere security theater to have a security checkpoint. Those checkpoints are demonstrably important.

      Not many of us remember, but until 1973 there was no baggage screening, no metal detectors, and no id requirements for getting on a commercial flight. The number of skyjackings had climbed rapidly since the mid-50s so that in 1972 there were 11 skyjackings of commercial flights around the world, seven in the US.

      After security checkpoints were introduced in the US, there wasn't another skyjacking in the US for three years. Then an occasional one now and then, as people found loopholes. There was one passenger airliner hijacking of a flight FROM the US in all the 1980s and none in the 1990s.

      My conclusion is that the security measures put in place by 1990 were highly effective. 9/11 fit the pattern of the early dribs-and-drabs hijackings, the difference is Al Qaeda made an effort to do multiple simultaneous exploitations of the vulnerability they'd found. There hasn't been a hijacking of a US flight since then, but given that the last passenger hijacking BEFORE 9/11 was in 1987, it's likely that this long dry spell is mostly if not entirely due to banning blades from carry on luggage. That's not to say that EVERY other change since then is security theater. I think reinforcing cockpit doors and changing pilot training was a reasonable response. But a lot of the enhanced pat-downs, magic scanners, no-fly list shennanigans and such are no doubt bogus.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    6. Re:No he didn't by Tom · · Score: 5, Insightful

      He did cause the delay.

      "User errors are user interface errors."

      Last line of a keynote speech I gave two years ago. If someone walking back through that exit is so serious that it causes this, then it should not be possible, period.

      It's easy to prevent. You post a security guard there, and/or you use appropriate doors. The last is a bit tricky due to large passenger volume and baggage, but some airports I know have these doors just before the baggage pickup area, for example.

      He didn't cause the delay. If you build systems for normal users, you have to expect them to make errors, and the system has to catch those errors and handle them in a non-fatal way. If it doesn't, your system is broken.

      --
      Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
  3. The terrorist won. by koan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That is all.

    --
    "If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
    1. Re:The terrorist won. by fustakrakich · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The State Inc. won. They created this perpetual "terrorist" gag for all their own profit.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  4. WTFBBQ by jtownatpunk.net · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The man disembarked a flight and left. It appears he wasn't paying attention, was looking at his iPad, forgot something and walked back past (the security area).

    If he got off a flight, he was already screened. Unless he left the airport grounds entirely and was out of view of security before returning, why did this require going Full Madagascar? The way it's described, it doesn't sound like he left the area. Just that he went out the exit, remembered something, turned around, and went the wrong way thru the exit. OMG EVERYBODY PANIC!

  5. Re:LAX has this solved. by Charliemopps · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When I was in Africa, they had a guy standing there. I couldn't read the language so I didn't realize I wasn't supposed to go that way. I walked up and he held up a finger and said "No." while shaking his head. Then pointed at the security check in... "Ah! thanks! I said" and he smiled. Amazing what real employees can do.