Airport sting in Guam: Tables are turned on the TSA

by Jeffrey White on

Think the Transportation Security Administration is the only one doing the confiscating at airports?

Here’s an interesting story out of an obscure Micronesian newspaper called the Marianas Variety. The managers of the Guam International Airport Authority have gone ahead and seized an undisclosed number of computers operated by the airport’s police division today, which answers to the TSA (Guam is, after all, a U.S. territory).

TSA officials are miffed. Those computers contain a lot of sensitive security information, and no one alerted them of the raid.

“It was not made clear to TSA who initiated the investigation or the scope,” the administration’s Daniel P. Astorga wrote in a terse-sounding letter to Jess Torres, the general manager of the airport authority. The letter was leaked to the Variety. “At the moment, TSA is unsure of the nature of the investigation and what, if any, does protected government information have to do with this investigation.”

Unfortunately, little in the Variety’s report clears up the confusion. All that seems clear is that the computers were work stations belonging to several police officers, who aren’t too happy. Maybe they were looking at too much porn?

The article doesn’t say. What it piece does give are a lot of abbreviations: TSA, GIAA, CPU, SSI, ASP. It’s like scrabble for illiterates.

What does this mean for you, dear consumer? Probably little, except perhaps a bit of satisfaction picturing some from the TSA looking a little bewildered as they watch their computers hauled off for scrutiny.

Question: Where do they get to file a complaint?

Vote for your favorite airport design at Oobject

by Grant Martin on


Having traveled extensively in the last few years, I’ve been given several opportunities to see some of the world’s best airports. I have fond memories of sitting on the ergonomic chairs at Paris‘s CDG E terminal, shopping at the gates in Barcelona and enjoying a beer under the vaulted ceiling of JFK. Mind you, I’ve also slept on the hard floors of Geneva, starved in Cairo and gone crazy in Newark, but those are the memories that we try to erase, right?

In tribute to the world’s great airports, Oobject put together a list of the top terminals by design for users to vote on. I say “terminals”, because not all are created equally in the same airport. I am reminded of the beautiful sections of Washington Reagen that 80% of passengers are privy to, while 20% of passengers like myself have to slum it down in the old terminal a half mile away.

Anyway, the top three so far are Seoul, Denver and Madrid, with the voting still in its early stages. If you haven’t been to all of the airports (who has?), take a good look at the architecture and cast your vote. Mine went for Paris, solely on account of terminal E. Right now, my pick has -41 votes.

TSA theft: Washington, D.C., travelers find many of their claims denied

by Jeffrey White on

Travelers from the greater Washington, D.C. can’t get no satisfaction from the Transportation Security Administration.

In 2007, D.C. travelers filed 569 lost-item claims concerning stuff that was pinched from their checked baggage. The TSA denied more than half, according to Beltway TV station NBC 4.

The channel reports that claims denied ranged from a paltry $3.75 to one for more than $10,000. It seems like even when the TSA decides to pay a claim, it is skint on cash: The most the administration shelled out for a claim was a bit more than $1,600 – which turns out to be less than half of what was originally asked for.

The station features an interview with Amber Lewis, who packed a $400 digital camera in her luggage only to have it stolen. After two months of back-and-forth with the TSA, Lewis finally received a check: for $125 (the airline, undisclosed in this report, threw in another $75).

Both the TSA and individual airlines have ceilings regarding how much they will reimburse (few go higher than $3,000 for a claim). And of course, it’s not surprising that airlines are usually the last to admit wrongdoing: It’s so much easier to generally blame things on negligent TSA screeners.

It seems that the TSA meets claims in full only rarely, if at all. Yet spokesmen for the administration can never seem to explain why this is so. Yes, when making a claim a traveler needs to prove ownership, a receipt proving the item’s worth, and a sworn affidavit that it was indeed lost. But given all this — and the labyrinthine process one must go through to get the necessary paperwork to the right people — there is no rational explanation for the TSA not to pay in full. To pay someone like Lewis $125 for a $400 camera (I’m assuming she made her case properly) is like the TSA reaching some kind of abstract conclusion as to what really happened to the item. If the TSA acknowledges a hand in an item going missing, what criteria does it use to weigh how significant that hand was?

I wish the NBC 4 report, or at least the written version, named some airports. Alas, no.

(Some of you reading will, with justification, have little sympathy for poor Amber Lewis. I mean, who packs expensive items like digital cameras into their checked baggage these days?)

What strange things have been found on planes?


Click the image to read the bizarre story…

Salvation: Newark and JFK airport flights capped

by Grant Martin on

Looks like New Yorkers are starting to see some results from last year’s suffocating loads — and subsequent complaints — out of and the Newark and JFK. If you remember the piece published in the New Yorker late last year and several of the subsequent articles that ran here at Gadling, you may know that the three airports suffer from terrible congestion, resulting in late flights all over the country, hours on the tarmac and general misery for anyone traveling through the area.

Much of the problem lies in the sheer demand out of the three airports. Passengers want to fly out at optimal times so airlines pack flights into certain times of the day. But FAA and Air Traffic Control requirements stipulate that only a certain amount of flights can leave within a particular window.

Until recently, there were more flights than there were take off slots, which kind of creates a problem even before one even exists. Mix some crummy weather and mechanical problems in and you have what’s known as today the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Now, the maximum number of outgoing flights will be changed from 100/hour to 83/hour, which should ease some of the congestion woes. Extra flights that were during peak hours will be spread throughout the day, with the net result of extra flights overall during the day. Recall however, that even at 100 flights/hour supply was still extremely tight during peak times. If that goes down, will ticket prices go up? My guess is yes.

[Via CNN]

Tired of removing your laptop at airport security? TSA is looking into solutions

by Jeffrey White on

Are you sick of having to take your laptop out of its case every time you pass through airport security? Apparently, the Transportation Security Administration is sick of it, too — or at least tired of how this ritual is slowing down screening lines.

The TSA is busy soliciting prototypes for laptop bags that would be able to pass through X-ray with the laptop still inside. The plan is to begin testing these bags in June with the aim of rolling out a TSA-compliant model soon thereafter.

What would the bag look like? It’s unclear, though USA Today floats one idea: A bag that looks like a large book, with the laptop fastened to one side when opened and gear fastened to the other (though this still sounds to me like you’d at least have to open the bag, if not remove the laptop). Maybe there is a line of clear bags in the offing, like the ones that popped up in high schools after Columbine, to make viewing what’s inside easier.

Whatever bag companies come up with, TSA-approved bags are likely to have a few identifying features that screeners can spot, allowing the bag to go right onto the X-ray conveyor. (Right now, you have to remove your laptop because it is too difficult for X-rays to see through them and catch what else might be in your bag.)

Clearly there would be a huge market for this, as it’s hard to imagine frequent travelers (the vast majority traveling with laptops) not shelling out for a bag that is pre-approved by the TSA. But then again, who knows how much of an inconvenience travelers really see in removing their computers.

Blogger Andrew B. Einhorn over at OhMyGov has to be joking when he says that removing laptops is the most time-consuming requirement in security lines. Removing shoes and belts is far more cumbersome, in my view.

What do you think? Does removing your laptop each time through security annoy you? Let us know.