Passenger lights cigarette, punches flight attendant and diverts flight to Denver

by Grant Martin on

We may have a new contender for worst passenger on an aircraft ever, ladies and gentlemen. Sorry Kyla and girls who think they’re prettier than the rest of the plane, you may have met your match.

On a Jetblue flight between San Francisco and New York this past Tuesday, Christina Szele just couldn’t wait any any longer for a smoke and decided to light up in the cabin. Obviously this has been outlawed on planes for years, so a flight attendant went back to ask her to put it out.

In response to the request, Szele instead verbally abused the flight attendant with racist remarks, provoking futher concern from the crew. After further agitation, several employees decided to restrain her and were able to secure her well enough to apply flexible handcuffs.

Untill she broke out of them. And punched the flight attendant that she was earlier harrasing in the face. Great idea.

Things got so far out of hand that the pilot had to divert the flight into Denver and have the woman removed from the aircraft and arrested. Now she faces 20 years in prison and up to 250,000 in fines.

I think that they should have just thrown her out of the plane with a parachute.

More women behaving badly at 35,000 feet:

British researchers blow hole in airplane with “3 oz liquids”

by Grant Martin on

In today’s chapter of alarmist security news, British Media published a report earlier this week claiming that they could obtain and formulate the right ingredients among 3.4 ounce bottles to blast a hole into the side of an airplane fuselage. They claim:

“The explosive was made by mixing two easily obtainable chemicals that can be carried through security in the permitted 100 millilitre containers.

To a security guard, the chemicals – which the Standard is not identifying and cost only a few pounds – are colourless and odourless and seem like water. They can be easily disguised, if necessary, as toiletries. “

But Kip Hawley over at the good ‘ol TSA claims says it’s not as easy as you think.. He says

“in recent tests, a National Lab was asked to formulate a test mixture and it took several tries using the best equipment and best scientists for it to even ignite. That was with a bomb prepared in advance in a lab setting. A less skilled person attempting to put it together inside a secure area or a plane is not a good bet.”

So perhaps we’re not as “at-risk” as the Brits claim we are. And I can see how this sort of sensationalist news reporting could try to stir up a controversy. But in a way, I can also sort of see how the bearish TSA could snub any idea that their rules aren’t efficient.

I just miss bringing bottles of wine in my checked luggage.

TSA and Delta employees caught smuggling drugs through Atlanta

by Grant Martin on

I wonder if this is going to make it up on the TSA blog?

CBS Atlanta reports that three employees of the Transportation Security Administration and Delta Airlines were recently charged in relation to conspiring and attempting to transport cocaine through Atlanta‘s airport and into New York. Apparently they had a system worked out where the TSA officer would let the smuggler through security without being checked and the Delta employee would transport the contraband.

Little did they know that the DEA was behind the operation and that they would be busted.

That’s not really the point though– anyone foolish enough to attempt smuggling drugs regularly through an airport is going to get caught eventually. The real problem is that the system can be broken with a couple of bad apples. If the TSA keeps hiring idiots like this to run our nation’s security checkpoints, what do they expect to happen? What if they weren’t smuggling drugs but were smuggling bombs?

We need to start screening our security screeners a little bit better.