TSA, the Fun Never Ends..

[Missdirected]

I'm done with this thread. Could you pass me some?

Sure, do you like extra butter or no?

 

[lamont]

Sure, do you like extra butter or no?

light on the salt but heavy on the butter, please =)

 

[TxHockeyGuy]

The problem is solved - about 30 high risk airports have explosives detectors where you stand under something that looks like an Xray gate, it blows a puff of air, and samples for trace residue. It's simply a matter of funding to buy and distribute them to all the airports. They are very expensive machines.

I've seen them on TV, but not at DFW airport. I would also think these would be fairly easy to bypass by encasing the explosive inside of an airtight container and then cleaning yourself up such that you wouldn't have any residue. I'm sure it's not as easy as I make it sound there but I'm pretty sure it could be done without too much trouble. Now combing that with one of those backscatter machines might jut do the trick. The obvious problem with backscatter is the privacy concern. If they could figure out how to computerize that it might just work. The problem would be then how to fund it as that stuff has all got to be insanely expensive.

 

[Fordan]

Sure, do you like extra butter or no?

[desperate effort to pull thread back on course]

But I bet if Catherine had extra butter stored in her carry-on, she'd have been taken out to the parking lot to dispose of it as a liquid...

[/desperate effort to pull thread back on course]

 

[ReefHound]

Now let’s assume that TWA800 was sabotaged by a very crafty group who figured out how to put a non-explosive igniter inside the center fuel tank that would be able to detect when the aircraft was in flight, the fuel vapors were sufficiently warm (>96F), and physically disturbed enough to be fully vaporized, would any group like that not want to brag about their accomplishment – even the Medellin crowd bragged about what they did. They also managed to design the device in such a way that it completely disappeared leaving no trace of itself in the tank remnants, which were bound be discovered as they didn’t set the device to go off over much deeper water.

I'm not saying TWA 800 was an act of terrorism, I'm saying it was possible.

Al Qaeda has been behind most of the dramatic incidents in the last decade. Their moduc operandi is not to claim responsibility. They never claimed responsibility even for 9/11 in fact explicitly denied it until we recovered the incriminating evidence in Afghanistan.

Placing a device inside the fuel tank is not necessary. The wires and the fuel pump are already inside, one only needs to send a massive electrical surge through them to create a burnout.

The fact that a device wasn't recovered doesn't prove it never existed. You couldn't blow up something in your front yard and recover all the debris, much less something over 100 square miles of ocean.

There are a ton of holes in the official theory and all the evidence that contradicts it has been suppressed or ignored.

 

[lamont]

There are a ton of holes in the official theory and all the evidence that contradicts it has been suppressed or ignored.

But somehow you know all about it?

 

[lamont]

Oh, I forgot, I'm supposed to be eating popcorn...

 

[Diver Dennis]

At least our luggage is safe...

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=171582

 

[RobynJ]

Kona TSA isn't much better. We had the pleasure of the "special search" and finally got through that only to have the ticket guy come find us to tell us we had "contraband" in our dive bags. I went back up front to find out dive lights out of our bags. Apparently we cannot leave the batteries in. When I stated that we flew 3 times a year to Hawaii and had never had a problem, his reply was, "We do our job here in Kona, ma'am!" Please! Then I had the pleasure of getting the "special search" all over again although it had only been 10 minutes since I'd had the same treatment!

 

[agilis]

I carry a small dive light in my hand luggage. The inspectors always switch it on to ensure that it is really just a flashlight and that only batteries are inside. Evidently, some of these people make stuff up, according to their mood of the moment.
I once lost a small 4 section travel fishing rod to an overzealous TSA inspector who insisted fishing rods, even those made up of four 18 inch fiberglass sections, are forbidden in hand luggage. The TSA's published regulations specifically state that fishing rods are ok, but this inspector may have been illiterate. We had two flight connections ahead of us, and I was traveling with three other people, so I really couldn't argue. No records are available to ordinary humans, and the TSA does not respond to written complaints. They do not compensate for items confiscated in error, because they will not admit to any errors.

Somewhere a TSA inspector is enjoying my neat little Fenwick Voyageur. I fear my own government more than any foreign entity.