TSA recently closed one of its terminals due to a bomb threat (or so they thought it was) and calls in the bomb squad and the FBI. Of course, this wasn’t actually a bomb but a DIY mint tin project.
The Omaha Police Department’s bomb squad was called after a suspicious-looking item was found in a carry-on bag shortly before noon at the airport’s north checkpoint in Terminal B.
Screening operations were suspended, and the B concourse was evacuated. Operations were not disrupted in Terminal A, according to a Transportation Security Administration official.
The item was cleared and airport operations returned to normal about 2 p.m. Breault said the device was harmless, “but it did trigger the proper response due to its suspicious appearance.”
Tisk, tisk, TSA simply needs to hire more qualified people at its checkpoints to better filter the real terrorists over innocent passengers with their latest electronic project. Based on this incident, it seems pretty clear to me that you probably don’t want to carry anything that has wires, chips, etc…etc…
I think that’s the way TSA works though, they hire people who probably barely qualify for McDonalds and can’t tell that the Large Ice Coffee Regular Flavor/Breakfast Burrito belongs to me instead of the guy behind my car in the drive-thru (which actually happened to me this morning).
Even if TSA needs to pay more money for more qualified people at checkpoints, they should really do that instead of shutting down the whole terminal and wasting people’s hard-earned tax dollars on calls to bomb squad and police that’s simply not necessary.
TSA gets another minus zillion points for another really stupid incident.
In the meanwhile, I highly encourage you to bring your latest electronic projects through the checkpoint, perhaps if everyone did this, TSA will do something about it.
