Many of you will remember the story from earlier this year about the man with the Fourth Amendment written on his chest who filed a lawsuit against the TSA, alleging that he had been wrongfully detained after he stripped down to his running shorts at an airport security checkpoint. Now comes news that a federal judge has dismissed complaints against almost all defendants in the lawsuit. [More]
TSA
Pregnant Passenger Says TSA Confiscated Her Insulin
By 8.8.11
The ever-vigilant Transportation Security Administration has kept the air safe from harmless fluids by confiscating a pregnant traveler’s insulin and ice packs as she tried to board a flight from Denver to Phoenix last week. [More]
TSA Rolling Out Israeli-Style Behavior Detection
By 7.29.11
The TSA might be asking you more questions when you go through security starting in August, and that’s a good thing. [More]
United Says Photographing Staff Could Get You On 'No Fly' List, Continental Says You Deserve An Apology
By 7.28.11
Though United Airlines and Continental have been married for the better part of a year, the newlyweds haven’t begun to see eye-to-eye on everything. Take, for instance, a customer’s right to photograph a staffer’s name tag. United says it could get you banned from the airline and put on a “no fly” list, while Continental says that’s just not so. [More]
Not Content With Hassling Air Travelers, Off-Duty TSA Agent Uses Badge To Scare Driver
By 7.27.11
One would think that the in-airport exploits of TSA agents do enough to tarnish the agency’s image. However, one agent in Connecticut thought he could bring that same level of traveler satisfaction to those driving the streets of the Nutmeg State. [More]
TSA Begins Installing Software That Makes Scanners Less R-Rated
By 7.20.11
For travelers whose main concern about the TSA’s full-body scanners is the potential of having their naked form displayed or downloaded onto some screener’s thumb drive, this may be good news. The agency announced today that it has begun installing software that displays objects hidden beneath passengers’ clothes but not show detailed images of their nude bodies. [More]
Woman Gets Knife Past TSA Checkpoints Not Once, But Twice!
By 7.19.11
What with reports indicating a plethora of security breaches at U.S. airports, why not check out some of those statistics in action? Two such breaches may have occurred recently, as an Indianapolis woman claims she made it through security twice with a knife in her carry-on. [More]
Reader: TSA Agent Cracks Timothy McVeigh Joke That Would Probably Have Gotten Me Detained
By 7.18.11
For all the wise-cracking most of us do about the TSA and airport security procedures, we also know that when it comes time to actually pass through the checkpoint on our way to the gate, it’s probably not the best time to be a jokester. But, says a Consumerist reader, there is at least one TSA screener who thinks it’s perfectly fine for him to lightheartedly reference Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. [More]
Woman Accused Of Groping TSA Agent — Yeah, You Read That Right
By 7.18.11
Accusations of groping involving Transportation Security Administration agents are far from unheard of, but it’s rare that it’s a security officer who’s the one filing the complaint. Yet a Colorado woman stands accused of groping a TSA agent at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor Airport Thursday. [More]
Appeals Court: Feds Rushed To Roll Out Controversial TSA Scanners
By 7.15.11
An appeals court panel in Washington, D.C., ruled today that the government jumped the gun by not seeking public feedback before rolling out airport scanners that see through travelers’ clothes. Unfortunately for those opposed to these devices, the scanners are not going anywhere. [More]
TSA To Test Trusted Traveler Program With Certain Delta & American Airlines Frequent Fliers
By 7.14.11
In May, TSA chief John Pistole said the agency was considering a program that would allow pre-vetted “trusted travelers” to get through airport security faster. Today, the TSA announced actual details of the program it will begin testing on a small group of fliers. [More]
Woman Arrested For Being Verbally Abusive To TSA Agents While Refusing To Let Daughter Be Screened Or Patted Down
By 7.13.11
A woman was arrested over the weekend at Nashville International Airport after her refusal to let her daughter be scanned or pat-down turned nasty. [More]
TSA Screener Accused Of Stealing $50K In Electronics From Travelers
By 7.8.11
As if worrying about having your private parts groped — or being scrutinized and mocked — by TSA screeners wasn’t enough, yet another airport security staffer has been arrested and accused of using his position to pilfer thousands of dollars worth of travelers’ treasures. [More]
The TSA Is All Worried About Surgically Implanted Bombs
By 7.6.11
The threat of drinking water and toothpaste has been securely locked up in a plastic sandwich bag. And those new-fangled scanners can see if you’re carrying a huge knife and/or grenade in your crotch. But a new threat has the TSA focusing its interest on something that its fancy electronics and grabby hands can’t detect so easily: Surgically implanted bombs. [More]
Airlines Can't Convince Court They Are Being Overcharged For TSA Screening
By 7.6.11
Even though the screeners at airport security checkpoints in the U.S. are employees of the Transportation Security Administration and those fancy new see-through-your-clothes machines are technically paid for by the feds, the airlines still have to fork over hundreds of millions of dollars per year for security theater. Several of them claim the TSA is overcharging to the tune of $115 million. An appeals court disagrees. [More]
JetBlue Now Offering Access To Speedier Security Lines For A Fee
By 7.1.11
Access to expedited security lines has generally been something that the largest airlines offer to their first class and business class passengers. But JetBlue, which has no first or business class seats, has just begun offering a service — for a fee, of course — that gives travelers access to the TSA fast lane at 14 airports. [More]
Man Boards Flight Using Someone Else's Expired Boarding Pass
By 6.30.11
Last week, a Nigerian man was able to board a Virgin America flight from NYC to L.A. without presenting valid ID and a boarding pass that not only didn’t belong to him, but was for a flight from the previous day. [More]
TSA: We Didn't Force 95-Year-Old Woman To Remove Diaper
By 6.28.11
Transportation Security Administration agents were accused of making a 95-year-old woman take off her diaper before a flight from Florida to Michigan, but the TSA now says it has investigated the incident and found that its agents did no such thing. [More]
