A possible hole in the US’s multi-billion dollar airport security system got the attention not only of flyers but also the TSA, the agency responsible for air safety that recently took the trouble to address an online video.
Of course, that video got more than one million views. And it purported to show how to circumvent the full-body scanners the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) installed at 140 US airports.
Blogger and often-time TSA critic Jonathan Corbett earlier posted a video titled "How to Get Anything Through TSA Nude Body Scanners" this month on YouTube and his own blog.
To prove that his method works, Corbett's video shows him sneaking a small metal box past full-body scanners at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Florida and Cleveland Hopkins International Airport in Ohio.
"The TSA can't be that stupid, can they?" Corbett asks in the video.
The TSA responded on its own blog, calling the video "a crude attempt to allegedly show how to circumvent TSA screening procedures."
The TSA does not dispute that Corbett found a way to sneak items past the screening machines but added that the scanners are one of many techniques the TSA uses to keep weapons off planes, reported the LA Times.
The TSA also uses pat-down searches, behavior detection experts, explosive detection units, specially trained dogs and armed federal marshals.
The scanners, the TSA said, are "not a machine that has all the tools we need in one handy device. We've never claimed it's the end all, be all."
By David Wilkening
