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Teen's Eagle Scout Project Used In O'Hare Security
from the the-state-of-airport-security dept
Apparently, our current airport security system is so poorly designed that we're leaving it up to teenagers to build the necessary tools. While I do think it's cool to find out that an airport as large as Chicago's O'Hare is willing to use a shoe scanner designed as part of an Eagle Scout project, it does make you wonder why no one had thought to build such a system before. The scanner isn't being used as a final security check - but as something of a "pre-security" check, to let passengers know if it's likely that their shoes will need to be scanned.
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False Negatives
Sounds like a typical science fair project winner in which the kid did very little inventing himself.
"The idea originated with his neighbor, Rick Spencer, a Transportation Security Administration official...."
When I walked by San Jose airport the other day, there was a cargo plane with the door open next to the fence. I could have climbed over the fence and gone in. A cargo plane into the Golden Gate Bridge, hmmmm... :-P
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O'Hare Security
I beat O'Hare security without even trying. Maybe another Eagle scout candidate can use my suggestion below for a project.
My night flight in was late and I missed my connection, so I rescheduled for a morning flight and stayed at a local hotel. When I went through the security checkpoint the next morning I used my boarding pass from the flight that I missed the day before. Three different people checked my boarding pass. At the gate I presented my boarding pass and they seemed quite alarmed that I had gotten there with a day-old boarding pass. Apparently I was supposed to stop at the ticket counter. They called security, and I think I got three guys into trouble.
SUGGESTION: Maybe the checkpoint guard should run the boarding pass through a mag stripe reader that will analyze the pass and display a red or green light.
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No Subject Given
Hmm -- at Oakland Airport a few months ago, in front of one of the metal detectors, they had duct-taped one of their metal-detector wands to the floor with a hand-written sign asking people to pre-scan their shoes. The other detector had a more professional-looking rig, so I'm not sure if this Eagle Scout is as original as he thinks he is.
It is a good idea, and it seemed to help, but last time I went through Oakland I saw no sign of it.
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