Fly the Leaky Skies

This piece in The New York Times earlier this week is an extreme -- but hardly an uncommon -- example, of just how ridiculous the TSA airport security system has become. For those who cannot access the article, the writer describes how, upon realizing that she may have left her wallet on the plane she had departed about 30 minutes earlier, she walked back to the gate, opened the unlocked jetway door, kept it propped open with her shoe, walked onto the empty and unattended plane, and searched around her seat for her wallet. Of course, the loud, piercing alarm did go off when she opened the jetway door, but it stopped a few minutes later when, the wallet search over, she dutifully closed the door.

My guess is that the people who should have responded to the alarm were busy outside emptying big garbage cans filled with shampoo and nail polish.

I was involved in a less egregious breach last week when I flew from San Diego to Philadelphia. About 20 minutes before my departure time, I checked my ticket to see which seating zone I had been assigned to for boarding purposes. I then realized that my ticket had a name on it that was not mine. It was close, but it clearly wasn't mine. I had showed that ticket and my driver's license to two security people to get through security. As the saying goes, I guess it was close enough for government work.