Posted on 12/29/2010 6:43:32 PM PST by opentalk
Despite a $98 million infusion for state-of-the-art baggage screening machines, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) somehow missed a suitcase filled with explosives that blasted after a three-hour domestic flight.
The shameful gaffe is simply the latest of many for the beleaguered Homeland Security agency charged with protecting the nations transportation system. A checked bag on a flight from Boston to Miami contained hundreds of bullet primers that exploded on the tarmac after the plane arrived in south Florida. Primers provide the spark that detonates the gunpowder in bullets.
The bag belongs to a 37-year-old man, said to be a naturalized U.S. citizen, who was scheduled to catch a connecting flight to Jamaica. When an airline baggage handler in Miami moved the suitcase on the tarmac, it ignited. The FBI was quick to point out that there were no injuries and immediately ruled out any sort of terrorism threat.
Authorities initially attributed the incident to an aerosol can exploding inside a passengers checked luggage, which led one local news agency in south Florida to sarcastically report that a can of hairspray caused a bit of a scare at Miami International Airport. Another labeled it as a freak accident though Boston media took the incident more seriously with a headline that read: Luggage that left from Logan explodes in Fla.
The alarming event caps a series of never-ending TSA blunders that have severely compromised national security in the last few months. While the 50,000-member agency harasses honest citizens with invasive, genital-groping personal searches, it ignores real threats and persecutes its critics.
(Excerpt) Read more at judicialwatch.org ...
“... through grandma’s luggage”.
By luggage, I am assuming you mean Grandma’s bra, right?
Well, you toss the suitcase they are in from the cargo area of the plane, out onto the tarmac.
But they found a woman’s comb in her pocket when they X-rayed her
Yeah, all those (billions and billions) of primers contained in cartridges sitting on the shelves of Wal-Mart and thousand of other stores??? Must be like nitro, donnchano.
Hey, give the TSA credit where it is due - they were sure on the ball in thoroughly checking my 14-month old son's sippy cup!
I want a job as a TSA inspector, you don’t have to do anything and get paid for it. My kind of job.
The Touch Some Ass (TSA) at their finest!
Well if it had been in his underwear, I am sure the TSA would have been all over it
Well if it had been in his underwear, I am sure the TSA would have been all over it
100 primers come in a box smaller than a CD jewel case.
Leni
≤}B^)
Primers and small arms ammunition are a Class C, DOT, transportable device. Hunters are allowed to pack ammunition in limited quantities in their checked baggage, and do so all the time, so I don't really see what the problem is.
Guns are permitted in a lockable transport container and carried on aircraft all the time. Did the citizen forget to declare he had primers in his bag?
Nah. According to the news it's common. Like 'accidental gun firing'.
Seems primers explode, and bullets fire themselves from guns all the time. Many SUV's have run down and killed people, or thrown their riders out to their deaths.
Do primers come in plastic baggies or something?
The story sounds BS, now.
The system worked.
The 37 year old had his gonads searched thoroughly and no suspect items were found.
The TSA is stepping all over the Constitution, is a huge waste of money and is totally ineffective. Pistole should be fired and jailed. And take Janet while their at it too. And whatever joker is the head of the FCC, can’t remember his name.
***I’m picturing a miniature suitcase bulging with hundreds of primers.***
1000 primers will fit in a box 2 inches X 2 inches 6 inches long. Some boxes are smaller.
In a box, if one primer pops the the rest will go off due to what is called “sympathetic detonation”.
One question that hasn't seem to have gotten asked. Jamaica, part of the British Commonwealth, same some of the strictest gun control laws around.
What was he doing bringing PRIMERS to JAMAICA?
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