It seems like the entire world has been on high alert since the attempted attack on Flight 253, with security personnel jumping anytime a potential breach is reported. Unfortunately, this has made for some embarrassing and would-be-funny-if-they-weren’t-so-frightening bloopers in the name of security.
Here’s a round-up…
Detroit, December 27: Two days after a Nigerian man attempted to detonate explosives on Flight 253, another Nigerian man boarded a different flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.
This time, the flight crew was ready for him: When the man locked himself in the bathroom, he was ordered to come out. Upon his refusal, the FBI was called in to escort him off the plane, as police officers yielding automatic weapons looked on. Meanwhile, bomb-sniffing dogs scoured the flight’s luggage.
Terrorist, it turns out, he was not: The man was soon released after it was determined he just had a particularly bad stomachache.
Slovakia, January 2: Determined not to be caught with their pants down, Slovak officials decide to test airport security by hiding plastic explosives in the luggage of eight unsuspecting passengers.
Hey, it almost worked:
Airport security did detect the explosives in seven of the suitcases. Unfortunately, the eighth bag, which belonged to a Slovak electrician living in Dublin, was not intercepted — and not immediately recovered.
According to the Irish Times, the explosives were so well-concealed that the passenger did not even find them when he returned home and unpacked his bag.
It took two days, apparently, for it to occur to the Slovak officials that maybe they should try to find that other bag, and another day for the Irish Army bomb squad to recover the explosives in Dublin.
Newark, January 3: Travelers faced massive delays after an unidentified man entered Newark Airport through an exit, right past a security guard. He was spotted by a pedestrian, but TSA officials were unable to find him following the breach, and shut down the airport for more than an hour while they conducted security checks. Flights were delayed, chaos ensued.
Apparently, an airport security tape (that will supposedly be released soon) reveals that the man went through the exit so he could kiss his girlfriend goodbye at the gate.
The guard was put on administrative leave, but the kiss-happy troublemaker has yet to be found.
Minneapolis, January 5: The Lindbergh Terminal at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport was shut down and evacuated for 90 minutes after a bomb-sniffing dog reacts to a suspicious piece of pink luggage.
In fact, the bag belonged to the airport itself, and was used as a marker to indicate to employees when all the bags had been unloaded from a flight.
Such a bag is so routine, in fact, that in airport jargon it’s referred to as a “last bag.”
California, January 5: At Bakersfield’s Meadows Field airport, a passenger’s luggage tests positive for an explosive during a routine swabbing. When the luggage was searched, TSA officials found several bottles filled with a suspicious amber liquid. The airport was then shut down.
After some testing, TSA officials confirmed that the substance in the bottle was honey. No word yet on whether the incident was actually coordinated by a pack of bears.
