TSA screeners use technology and hand searches in an effort to find explosives, weapons and other dangerous items in carry-on luggage. Travelers at Honolulu airport have complained that potentially lethal weapons have gotten through security here. One passenger complained that a 12-inch meat cleaver packed in a piece of carry-on luggage was undetected at a Honolulu checkpoint. Many of the claims are difficult to verify, since they're filed after the fact.
"We're not aware of that specific case, so there's nothing we can do about a possible meat cleaver getting through security. I can tell you that security today is better than it ever has been. We constantly train and re-train our screeners at the security checkpoints," TSA spokesman Nico Melendez said.Another Honolulu passenger reported that she forgot she had a pocketknife in her purse and went through a checkpoint in Honolulu, where screeners didn't find it. She e-mailed the TSA saying that it "doesn't make you feel safe flying."
Then there's the woman who complained that she had a bottle of pepper spray in her carry-on luggage and it got through checkpoints like this in Honolulu, Atlanta and Chicago.
"If we were to find that somebody did get through a checkpoint with pepper spray or any other kinds of spray for that matter that are prohibited, certainly there would be cause for concern. If passengers think they got through security accidentally with something that they shouldn't have, we invite them to please come back to the checkpoint and tell our supervisors, tell our managers at the checkpoints so that we can take immediate action," Melendez said.
KITV reviewed 850 complaints filed by passengers about TSA operations in Honolulu from January 2004 to August 2005. People reported hundreds of thefts from luggage, which they blamed on TSA employees, along with security breaches and inappropriate behavior by screeners.In one case, a man stopped for a body search complained that a male TSA screener repeatedly groped his crotch area. That complaint and many others were filed days or weeks after the alleged incident. The TSA asks that people immediately talk to supervisors if there's a problem.
"But if you leave and you go somewhere else and then you call a week, two weeks, three weeks later, it certainly makes it more difficult to research that," Melendez said.
The Hawaii Channel KITV
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Just a few days ago, President Bush said he wanted to raise the security fees on air travel tickets in order to cover the cost of security. If screens can not do their jobs with the money they have now, why give them more? There are some serious holes in the screening system and they need to be fixed. A complete ban on all dangerous objects is needed. That way no sharp or lethal weapons could be mistakenly allowed onto aircraft.
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