Now that I've talked about an event revealing the flaws of airport security, here is an instance where security actually succeeded (kind of). A film crew was arrested at Newark International Airport, New Jersey on Thursday for allegedly attempting to smuggle a fake bomb through security. The crew, who was reportedly contracted by CNBC, was filming for a reality TV show called Staten Island Hustle. According to the New York Daily News, the TV crew knew they were going to get caught, but wanted to capture on film the reactions of the officers and the subsequent panic that would ensue. After the TSA discovered an item which had the makings of an IED, a TSA bomb tech who happened to be at the checkpoint investigated the "bomb" and determined that it was fake.
Even though the bomb was fake, this event does show that the TSA have a system that works in the event of a real situation, which is reassuring after the news about Marilyn Hartman the "serial stowaway". Without this happening, it would have been hard to show the public that the TSA can be reliable when it comes to stopping potential attacks (other than an actual attack, which would suck). However, I can't comprehend why the TV crew would think it's a good idea to smuggle a fake bomb into an airport. The only logical reason I could think of would be for some kind of test to make sure that airport security was safe (if they did this, they should close the airport, not stage an actual bomb threat), but this doesn't seem to be the case. It was irresponsible and immature to pull this kind of stunt in a public area, especially in an airport, with something as threatening as a bomb.
Source 1
Source 2
2 comments:
Did the Reality TV Crew actually have permit to do this or was this just "in-the-moment" decision? Because ultimately, the bomb is fake, and they were recording the whole thing to test how TSA's reactions. Despite being unconventional, I think this test has more positive connotations than negative ones. I don't believe that the crew should've been arrested in any case. There was obviously no evil intent, and no one was hurt from this act. It is however, reassuring, that the security in international airports are high enough to detect things like these. This also reminds me of how airports would send fake "scans" ever so often onto passengers' luggage to make sure their own team is alert.
I think this article and the other TSA related article recently posted are interesting because they offer slightly different perspectives on the effectiveness of the TSA. They both reminded me of an article I came across a few years ago (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/investigation-breaches-us-airports-allowed-weapons-through-n367851) which describes how the head of the TSA was essentially fired after homeland security agents posed as passengers and tried to get weapons past airport security and were only stopped 5% of the time. Meaning the TSA had a 95% failure rate (in 2015). I don't know how that statistic has changed since the head of the department has changed, but these three articles lead me to believe the TSA more creates the illusion of security and be a deterrent rather than actual security.
Post a Comment