Yes, in 2011 we all got upset with the pat down of children by the Traffic Safety Administration (TSA). Due to people’s outrage, TSA changed its pat downs of children and went to a 95 year old woman with Leukemia in Panama City Florida. She was searched for 45 minutes and had to remove her undergarment/adult diaper. On a funnier note, there was the Colorado woman who was arrested for groping (touching the breasts) of a TSA agent. Per Good Morning America in July TSA unveiled a more private (less invasive) scan that shows only a generic body outline. Unfortunately, in September it was reported that a 10 month study at the Hamburg, Germany Airport found the scanners were wrong 49% of the time; they can’t tell the difference between body sweat and explosives. There are 250 of the new L-3 Communications scanners being used in 40 airports across the country and TSA says it’s still the best the industry has to offer. On September 13th ABC News reported that TSA said they modified its pat down for children under 12, they will be doing fewer and the kids will not be required to take off their shoes. Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, said they’re going more to a risk based screening; looking more at people who recently traveled to countries that support terrorism and maybe loosening up on others. I hope this approach doesn’t put us all at risk since we know terrorists use children as bombs. TSA suspended or fired more than 2 dozen screeners at the Honolulu Airport because they were not checking bags properly and failed to screen checked bags for explosives. On December 4 the TSA is taking heat after an 84 year old woman at a New York (NY) airport was strip searched (she asked to be patted down, not stripped, because she was concerned about going through a body scanner because of her heart defibrillator). On December 12 NY lawmakers push for passenger advocates at airports to deal with TSA screening complaints.
We had air traffic controllers falling asleep and watching movies; overall they’re making 51% more errors and per the FAA in 2009 there were 951 runway incidents, mostly minor; there were planes that hit one another tearing the tail on one plane and the wing of other plane, it happened in April 2011 in NY and July 2011 a Delta jet clipped the tail of a regional jet on a Boston taxiway. It was reported on September 5 that per the Boston Globe the FAA said that there was an 81% increase in air traffic errors during 2007 – 2010. The errors are when planes get too close to something and some controllers were saying it’s because of inexperience and poor training.
It was reported that there were 25,000 security breaches at airports since 9/11 even though $20 billion has been spent. It’s said that these breaches are less than 1% of the passengers and many of the instances were thwarted or discovered in the act. We had a stun gun and people in parts of airports where they didn’t belong; luggage and people were not being scanned; a loaded gun in carryon luggage and a Nigerian man who boarded a Virgin America plane with an improper boarding pass (different date and flight number) and fake identification who didn’t get caught until he tried it again on a Delta flight; the FBI found several boarding passes and Identifications in his bag.
There were planes falling apart with the most recent being a bad tire on a Southwest plane leaving Sacramento, California. And it was reported that Autopilot has made flights safer however, since pilots are in control for approximately 3 minutes during landing and takeoff, pilots don’t know what to do in an emergency when autopilot goes out; some have keyed in the wrong information into the automated programs resulting in 51 out of control accidents in the last 5 years, mostly overseas. The NTSB is recommending more training and hands on flying using simulators as airlines don’t want pilots taking planes off the autopilot.
On December 7 Randy Babbitt, head of the FAA, resigned after being pulled over for DWI. On December 21 it was reported that the FAA is introducing new rules requiring pilots to work no more than 14 hours a day (down from 16) and to get 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep before getting into the cockpit. Some say the new rules don’t go far enough and the FAA says they require airlines to recognize the additional problems with commuting pilots and pilots are to decide whether or not they’re fit to fly (doesn’t protect the pilots from disciplinary action if they report they’re too fatigued to fly). I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how all the changes play out.
By the way, on December 30 it was said that 1% of airline luggage doesn’t make its destination. On December 31 during a TSA screening at the Midland International Airport in Texas, a 30 year old solder travelling with family to his base in North Carolina was detained when C-4 explosives were found in his carryon bag; there was no detonator so it seems there was no intent to do harm but he is facing federal charges for trying to bring explosives on an airplane.
No comments:
Post a Comment