WTF is the Port Authority / NYC / airline / whoever pressing CRIMINAL charges for? He owes the airline penalties for the delay, sure, and maybe a job dismissal, but are we locking up people for just farting in the airport nowadays?

@timmus: I think it fits. You have to consider if it was you or I instead of the screener we'd be arrested. I'm glad they didn't "play favorites".

I guess I'm evil but I'm just sitting here laughing that one of the little tin pot dictators got screwed just the same way he screws people every day.

@timmus: Because the owner of the property in question probably pressed charges. I can ask you to leave my house and if you don't I can have you prosecuted.

karma

how come he gets to go onboard to say bye to his parents without a boarding pass when others dont? Thanks TSA! Not only do you do you make my aiport experience less safe, and more of a hassle, but you also give yourself perks! and why would anyone even go on a plane right before it left anyways?

@MercuryPDX: Ditto!

@Buran: Yeah, but you'd arrest a houseguest who wasn't aware the BBQ ended 15 minutes ago and was still in the bathroom? It's not like the guy didn't want to leave.

@Buran:

That comparison makes zero sense.

How big of a momma's boy do you have to be to walk your parents onto a plane then hang out long enough for everybody to board and the doors to shut?

After reading the article, I'm starting to think this is more than just a doofus TSA screener giving himself a little "perk" to say bye to mom & dad. Sounds like this guy was trying to hitch a free ride to the UAE.

@timmus: Parties without a specific ending time aren't the same as a commercial flight which has a specific departure time.

I have the impression that most of tsa agents dislike flying. because they know very well the hell they created in the name of national security.

While I agree with Buran in principal that he was trespassing, I reach the conclusion differently. He had no permission to be there in the first place, he had no boarding pass, and likely had no specific, express approval to go on the plane. The "owner" doesn't have to ask him to leave for it to be trespassing. He simply has to be there without permission.

Did he have to undergo full body cavity search, and be interrogated by DHS agents? Threats of gitmo? Anything less is bs.
And lets not forget, of all the flights to pull this on he picks one going to the Middle East!

So, according to the TSA guy, the reasonable thing to do was to delay a jetliner full of passengers, possibly missing their departure slot, because the jerk couldn't sneak off the plane quickly enough?

And, could you imagine the anal strip searches the TSA would visit upon every single passenger if it was discovered that an unauthorized person spent time immediately before departure on a commercial jet?

Hang 'em high. And his TSA overlords. By their tender vittles.

I just didn't see anything particularly out of line here. Sure the dude should have gotten off a little quicker, but I got the impression he was working the counter for that flight, so it wasn't entirely unreasonable for him to even be there.

@STEVEBMD

I'm not sure what gives you the idea he was trying to get a free flight, nothing in any article I read about this gives that impression.

I wish Stephanie and Michelle had been arrested when this happened on Full House.

@coren: He was completely out of line. Not supposed to be there even with the door open.