TSA job demographic: must eat lots of pizza

by Tom Johansmeyer on

The TSA is looking for fitness freaks and health gurus to keep our planes and airports safe. This is a pretty important job, so it makes sense that the agency would be committed to sourcing the best of the best. When you walk through airport security, the goal is to make you think twice about that box-cutter tucked in your boot.

That’s why the TSA is advertising its open positions on pizza boxes.

Before stuffing your pie-hole with a slice, the TSA wants to own your eyeballs for a moment, using that moment before you flip the top of the box back and dive into a greasy delight to entice you to apply. These ads, the only thing standing between you and caloric heaven, are for positions at Dulles and Reagan National in the Washington, DC area. Potential candidates are offered careers “where X-ray vision and federal benefits come standard,” according to USA Today.

So, what kind of hopeful TSA pro can we expect to find responding to a pizza-box ad? Do we really need to ask?

[photo by @tjohansmeyer via TweetPhoto]

D.C. area airports pet relief areas – fake fire hydrant included

by Scott Carmichael on

I am not a pet owner – so I never thought about the challenges involved in letting Fifi or Mr. Bigglesworth relieve themselves during a trip.

Apparently, the Washington D.C. airports did consider these challenges, because they just opened several designated pet relief areas.

At Dulles, two of these areas are actually inside the airport. Each of these fenced in areas has a fake fire hydrant, artificial grass and bag dispensers. To keep things clean, these locations also have special ventilation and a flushing system. Three other locations at Dulles are pre-secruity, outside the main terminal building.

At Reagan National, all the relief areas are outside the terminal buildings. They are located at Terminal A, B and C. A map of the locations can be found here. The relief areas were originally intended for service animals, but traveling pets are also welcome.

Mother attempts to flush newborn baby down airplane toilet

by Scott Carmichael on

A 25-year-old medical student has been arrested in Northern India after attempting to flush her newborn baby down the toilet.

The woman was flying home from Turkmenistan when she gave birth in the bathroom. Upon landing, she left the plane, leaving the baby in the toilet.

The entire toilet had to be removed, and surgeons at a local hospital used a saw to remove the newborn from it. According to doctors, the baby is in critical condition.

The mother was arrested in the airport and has been transferred to a local hospital where she was reunited with her baby.

Once doctors declare her fit, they’ll investigate her motives, but it appears she had been studying medicine in Belarus and did not want to return home with a baby.

[Image from Flickr/dpstyles]

Solar-powered plane flies at night

by Sean McLachlan on


An airplane that relies entirely on solar energy has flown for 24 hours straight, cruising along happily through the darkness and emerging into the dawn with three hours left in its batteries. Once the sun rose, of course, the batteries immediately began to recharge.

The Solar Impulse is the product of the same great minds that brought you the cuckoo clock–the Swiss! The entire wingspan is covered with 12,000 solar cells that power four electric engines. Average cruising speed is 70 km/hr (43.5 mph). You can see complete stats on the plane here.

The next step for the engineers is to make the next generation of the plane, one that will fly around the world by 2013. The Solar Impulse is not the first solar-powered airplane, only the first to complete a manned night flight. Scientists and engineers have been experimenting with solar-powered planes since the 1970s and manned flights since the 1980s. This new leap forward will add impetus to a field of study that has so far received little attention from the press.

While this technology is still in the experimental stage, the potential impact for the airline industry and the environment is obvious. Airline emissions pose a major environmental threat, and G8 leaders have called for a 50 percent reduction in airline emissions by 2050. That’s a tall order, but it looks like the Swiss have shown the way forward. Of course the Solar Impulse’s slow speed and small cockpit mean the age of solar-powered 747s is a long way off, think of it as the modern equivalent of the Wright Brothers plane. It was only a generation after Kitty Hawk that passengers started flying to international destinations.

American Airlines misroutes, loses guns belonging to Israeli PM bodyguards

by Scott Carmichael on

When a team of bodyguards for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu checked in for their flight from New York JFK to Washington D.C, they followed all the correct procedures – notifying the TSA that their Glock handguns were present in the suitcases, and allowing security staff to seal the bags.

Sadly, correct procedures did not prevent stupidity, because American Airlines misrouted the bags to Los Angeles instead of D.C.

To make matters worse, when they finally retrieved their bags, one of the guns was missing, and is presumed stolen.

A police report was taken for the theft of the gun, and I’m sure the TSA will be working overtime to review security video footage to track down the culprit.

The whole thing makes a mockery of U.S. airport security, which is even more embarrassing, since the Israeli system is considered one of the best in the world.

While the Israelis have mastered the art of profiling and terrorist detection, we can’t even find security staff that can keep their sticky fingers out of luggage containing handguns. Of course, this also means a gun is now missing inside the secure and sterile part of the airport, pretty much defeating all the millions spent on airport X-Ray equipment.

[Photo from Flickr/Smarter’s Photos]