It is entirely conceivable in this age of remarkable disguises that a bloodthirsty terrorist intent on sneaking through airport security might assume the identity of a 12-year-old with a debilitating bone disease. But why would so clever a thief be clumsy enough to leave traces of explosives on his hands?
That is the question that officers of the Transportation Security Administration are hard-pressed to answer when asked about their detention of wheelchair-bound Shelbi Walser for the better part of an hour at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport last Sunday.
The Daily News reports that Walser, who suffers from a genetic bone disorder called Brittle Bone Disease, was on her way to Tampa with her mother to receive treatment. She was randomly selected for a security screening, and when officers swabbed her hands, they found traces of explosives.
According to the girl’s mother, Tammy Daniels, the ordeal left her in tears. Luckily, mom and daughter still made their flight, but Daniels was critical of the procedure, telling TV station WFAA:
I am by no means undermining our safety in the air. After 9/11, by no means am I doing that. But, when it comes to children, common sense is not in a textbook.
But common sense might have led authorities to ask questions that would have explained the anomaly, such as do you ever have occasion to handle fertilizer (“Yes, we raise chickens”).
In a statement, the TSA acknowledged the incident but defended its actions, writing:
We are sensitive to the concerns of passengers who were not satisfied with their screening experience and we invite those individuals to provide feedback to TSA through a variety of channels.
We work to balance those concerns with the very real threat that our adversaries will attempt to use explosives to carry out attacks on planes.
That’s all well and good, but what ever happened to the TSA’s policy exempting children 12 and under from pat-downs?
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I no longer fly, so I don’t care. Except that TSA are government employees that make postal service employees look competent by comparison. And the morons in this case are at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to intelligence. Good thing for them the TSA is going union.
Again, I no longer fly, so I don’t care. When enough other people have this attitude, things will change.
and exactly what did they do that wasn’t both good and reasonable in this case?
would you suggest that if they detect possible explosives on the hands of a kid that they not stop her from boarding and ask her a few questions …even if it takes “the better part of an hour’?
I look forward to returning to Bratislava for Christmas holiday and my semi-annual groping from the TSA before I leave.
fuster
December 15, 2012 @ 5:06 PM
Just about every time I finish work, I clean up with chemicals that could show up as possible explosives.
They pulled this kid out AT RANDOM, then found trace elements of explosives.
Even a cursory glace at her and her mother would have eliminated them as possible terrorists, while those that could be possible terrorists are ignored by our PC society.
For cryin’ out loud, I used to fly all the time. The airport in New Orleans would confiscate my tiny Swiss army knife EVERY TIME. If screeners like that had been in New York and Boston on 9-11, there wouldn’t have been the hijackings we are so concerned about now.
cozmo—- what have your experiences to do with this…. yes, they made a random check….. that a problem?
and yes, they detected possible explosives and decided to question her before letting her get on the plane…. that a problem?
what would you have done after she tested positive ?
not question her, but let her board right away?
fuster
December 15, 2012 @ 6:30 PM
Yes I frickin’ would have.
Evidently, there is something lacking in the liberal/gov’t employee/hive mind. Its called common sense.
really??? it doesn’t occur to you that the girl might have been touching something that her mom and dad had around the house?
common sense is good, but doesn’t substitute for intelligence and imagination all that often.
Let’s back-up a sec. I doubt that even the TSA screeners thought that a 12-year old sick child was a terrorist. But if a terrorist wanted to get a bomb on a plane, wouldn’t hiding it in the child’s wheelchair be a good way to get that done?
This is the level that our society is forced to deal with – terrorists think nothing of basing missile launchers on the roofs of hospitals or in the play areas of day-care centers. They take Down-Syndrome kids and put explosive vests on them, sending them into busy shopping areas before blowing them up remotely.
These things have all happened.
Why would they balk at sneaking a bomb into the wheelchair of a crippled child?
Don’t get angry at the TSA screeners who detect possible explosives – get angry at the terrorists and terror groups (Hamas, Hexbollah, Fatah, etc) who have brought us down to this level where we are forced to search a sick child’s wheelchair.
Yes, get angry – but be angry at the people responsible, not the people who are caught in the middle.
[you also need to answer this: what if TSA had detected possible explosives, but said "oh, it's OK., it's just a sick kid in a wheelchair" and let them on the plane, and then the plane exploded? Who would you be angry at then?]
why, that was completely logically and demonstrated an understanding of the law, the duties of the TSA, and the public’s desire to not get blown up while on an airplane.
Brittle bone disease (osteogenesis imperfecta) is commonly found in children that causes fractures. I have known that these fractures are very difficult to be predicted in children.