Boyd Consulting on the TSA

derg

derg

Apparently a "terse" writer
Staff member
Spot on, if you ask me:

Chutzpah Quote of The Week

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"TSA moves in a flexible, nimble fashion to address vulnerabilities with a layered security approach."

That was the latest babble from TSA Administrator Kip Hawley, referring to the TSA's after-the-event "surge" reaction to the revelation that Orlando International Airport was a hotbed of back-door gun and drug smuggling.

This was his smokescreen to cover the fact that the TSA was once again proven to be an embarrassing failure, with no cohesive, anticipative security program for airports' "back doors," despite the fact that it should be part of basic security, not to mention having been repeatedly brought up to he and his boss by Congress.

Tellingly, this numbskull statement was made just before the Orlando Sentinel reported that significant parts of the airport's own security plan were found in a dumpster. Yup, there's real security awareness all around in Mickey Mouseland.

When the next terrorist event takes place, Congress, the airline industry and the airport industry will have no excuses. They know this TSA leadership is reactive and incompetent, and we've been warned time and again with events like in Orlando. Tolerance, and worse, encouragement, for what's going on at the TSA is putting the flying public at risk.

It's time they spoke out. Loudly. Our aviation industry is NOT secure. This time, it was just guns and marijuana.

Next time, it could be C-4 and RPGs.
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Original Context
 
It's all ########.

Excuse my language, but the TSA is a waste of tax payer's money. New uniforms, new people manning security gates - WITH THE SAME DAMN TECHNOLOGY OF PRE-9/11.

I don't feel any more secure, and I also do not swallow the kool-aid from my government when it comes to being protected. White TSA shirts, and a new government office isn't going to end aviation disasters that are caused by radical individuals...NOT A FAT CHANCE.

The end.
 
The premise of the TSA is flawed.

The idea that the terrorists who were smart enough to pull off September 11 would be stupid enough to try it again is laughable.

Equally laughable is the fact that while you and I are taking off our shoes so they can x-ray them despite the fact the head of homeland (in)security says those don't detect explosives and while Aunt Bessie and Uncle Bob are giving up their lipgloss and toothpaste, the cargo going into planes is not screened at all.

Take some of the people who are watching me take off my shoes, and make them screen the cargo for explosives.
 
The latest TSA initiative is a joke. All it says is they don't trust their own security enough so they can send you out of the secure area so you can be screened again. Yesterday I was getting on the employee shuttle and I was watching the ramp workers line up and swipe their ID's to head through a door. Note to TSA: ALL EMPLOYEES WHO CAN ENTER THE SECURE AREA SHOULD BE SCREENED BEFORE ENTERING SUCH AREAS.
 
EDUC8-or said:
Note to TSA: ALL EMPLOYEES WHO CAN ENTER THE SECURE AREA SHOULD BE SCREENED BEFORE ENTERING SUCH AREAS.
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Should be screened, means they won't be.

It's kinda like you SHOULD have nookie time with your wife after you get married. A lot do, but a good number don't.

I was flying out a couple of weeks ago, and I was selected by some moron as a "random selectee" All while displaying a SIDA badge for the airport I am traveling out of.

TSA:"you look familiar?"
me: "yeah I work for Comair, here's my SIDA badge"
TSA: "oh"
Me: "I dont need to be subjected to random additional screening"
TSA: Says who?
ME: "our AOSSP" (security procedures book)
TSA: uh YES YOU DO

by this time he was done with my stuff, so I let it go.

"Thanks for keeping us safe":sarcasm:

Transportation Stupidity Administration
 
The reason(s) for the latest initiative where they can send us through security again are because of a ramp worker who smuggled guns and drugs onto an airplane. Do you think these items (at least the guns) would have shown up on an x-ray machine if he had to pass through security?
 
OldTownPilot said:
TSA:"you look familiar?"
me: "yeah I work for Comair, here's my SIDA badge"
TSA: "oh"
Me: "I dont need to be subjected to random additional screening"
TSA: Says who?
ME: "our AOSSP" (security procedures book)
TSA: uh YES YOU DO
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Actually, he was right. SIDA badges only get you into a secure area if a) you aren't flying anywhere or b) you are actually working or deadheading (although that just changed) on the flight. A lot of places have been lax about this but it has been official policy since PSA1771. Again, like this latest TSA policy regarding crew member movement, there is really no way to enforce it unless they start stamping your hand when you go through a screening checkpoint.
 
tonyw said:
The premise of the TSA is flawed.

The idea that the terrorists who were smart enough to pull off September 11 would be stupid enough to try it again is laughable.
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Not sure who we''re talking about here. The terrorists that pulled off 9/11 are either dead, in prison, or moving from cave to cave wondering if there's a sniper nearby. Pretty smart.

The idea that aviation is not a target and there will never ever again be an attempt to takeover an airliner is pretty farfetched it seems to me, especially if we stupidly didn't take precautions. Having said that the TSA is a typical bumbling bureaucracy. And my idea of precautions would be secure doors, armed pilots, screening for explosives, and top-notch profiling. Use the money saved on FAMs, for one, to help fund profilers.
 
At the airport I used to work at, it wasn't the TSA that was the biggest security breach, nor was it workers with SIDA badges. It was McDonald's. Counter on the secure side, counter on the non-secure side, and one kitchen (non-sec). They have to get the food from one side to the other, and I can tell you that it wasn't through the security checkpoint or a secure door. (think 3x3 cutout in the wall)
 
sopdan said:
At the airport I used to work at, it wasn't the TSA that was the biggest security breach, nor was it workers with SIDA badges. It was McDonald's. Counter on the secure side, counter on the non-secure side, and one kitchen (non-sec). They have to get the food from one side to the other, and I can tell you that it wasn't through the security checkpoint or a secure door. (think 3x3 cutout in the wall)
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Bradley International, right?

But the problem with the TSA is that their new security initiative changed no less than three times in a single day and I'm not exaggerating.

One of the changes that was made (or unmade) that day was that all employees that entered into the SIDA must be rescanned prior to traveling as a passenger. So if you commuted in from PHX, worked a two day trip, you were going to have to exit the SIDA, go thru security again, and then you were able to fly as a passenger on your commuter flight home.

I'll have to check to see if that was one of the changes that was 'un-made'.
 
Here's the "latest" but I'm sure it'll change again today:

The TSA has issued a new Security Directive (SD) on screening and cabin searches which is now in effect. The SD changes to the security policy include three important points. 1) All employees who are traveling as passengers must access the sterile area through, and undergo screening at the screening checkpoint. All property is subject to screening, 2) The TSA may conduct screening at the boarding gate of revenue and non-revenue passengers and their property prior to boarding. Only FAMs, LEOS, FFDOs and working crew members who board the aircraft before passenger boarding has begun are exempt, and finally, 3) the TSA may visually inspect cabins prior to passenger boarding. Deadheading and commuting crewmembers are considered passengers and must enter the sterile area through the screening checkpoint. Crewmembers are still exempt from liquid/gel restrictions. The TSA made these changes without soliciting ALPA's input. ALPA is actively engaged in dialogue with government and industry representatives to seek clarification on the meaning and intent of the new regulations and to seek relief in problematic areas. We will keep you informed.
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And over on the Southernjets forum, it looks like he and his family were traveling on a intenerary that required a connection through a hub, he had to exit the SIDA again, get rescanned and missed his connection.

This whole thing is still evolving.
 
I, for one, am very happy that the TSA is FINALLY taking on the biggest aviation threat that exists in our nation: the flight crews!

I can finally sleep now.
 
flyover said:
Not sure who we''re talking about here. The terrorists that pulled off 9/11 are either dead, in prison, or moving from cave to cave wondering if there's a sniper nearby. Pretty smart.

The idea that aviation is not a target and there will never ever again be an attempt to takeover an airliner is pretty farfetched it seems to me, especially if we stupidly didn't take precautions.
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If you want to call al Qaeda stupid, feel free. But the problem is that when you assume your enemy is stupid, and plan accordingly, it will bite you in the ass.

I don't for a second think that commercial aviation won't be a target again.

But taking Aunt Bessie's toothpaste and making me take off my shoes is not the way to address the problem.

What good does it do for the TSA to confiscate Aunt Bessie's toothpaste when the cargo that goes in the hold right underneath her isn't screened at all?
 
surreal1221 said:
Excuse my language, but the TSA is a waste of tax payer's money. New uniforms, new people manning security gates - WITH THE SAME DAMN TECHNOLOGY OF PRE-9/11.
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New people? Maybe not the same faces, but the caliber is the same. Burger King rejects all around.
 
One thing to remember is that you can store explosives in Aunt Betty's tube of toothpaste, Doug's shoes, and in baby's formula along with Grandpa's cane and wheelchair. That detonator required to make the pound or two of C4 go boom... That could be stored alongside someones zipper in their pants, inside your mom's underwire bra and just tucked inside Muhammad's back door.

Can we check all of this stuff? Not everyday, no one would ever be able to board and I don't think I would submit to that type of screening. It only takes 3-4 days to drive to any part of the country from another part of it.

The TSA's philosopy is as long as they keep changing up their tactics, they might be able to confuse the bad guys and catch them when they do try something.
 
tonyw said:
If you want to call al Qaeda stupid, feel free. But the problem is that when you assume your enemy is stupid, and plan accordingly, it will bite you in the ass.
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Definitely feel al Qaeda is stupid, stupid beyond the normal bounds of stupidity. Hitler type stupid in that they ultimately will engineer their own destruction just like every similar movement in history.

And like Hitler they will do very stupid things, which is probably one of the reasons some plots have been foiled around the world.

The main problem with 9/11 was we didn't have a clue there were morons like this coming after us.

I don't for a second think that commercial aviation won't be a target again.

But taking Aunt Bessie's toothpaste and making me take off my shoes is not the way to address the problem.

What good does it do for the TSA to confiscate Aunt Bessie's toothpaste when the cargo that goes in the hold right underneath her isn't screened at all?
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I agree completely about Aunt Bessie. As you know I favor profiling. Aunt Bessie would generally get a pass in my system. But I know you feel the geniuses at al Queda would recruit an army of Aunt Bessies to foil the profile.

Cargo, got to agree with you. Profiling could help there too, so that every piece wouldn't have to be screened.

But I definitely think SAMs are a big threat that may bite us yet.
 
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