This happened a couple of weeks ago and no flights went down, but it could have been a test of how to get people through security with material that would otherwise be detected, which they could then stash somewhere and retrieve later if they had to be re-screened. Or it could just be an incompetent TSA employee (there are certainly more than enough of those to go around) who just happened to be a Muslim. There is no way to be sure at this point, although it would be refreshing, albeit unlikely, if law enforcement did a bit of digging into the activities of Alija Abdul Majed. In any case, this incident underscores how useless the TSA really is. They are always one step behind the jihadis, who are always thinking of new ways to murder for their god, and they steadfastly refuse to adopt screening measures that would focus on the groups that actually pose a terror threat -- to do so would be "Islamophobic," of course. And so instead, everyone has to put up with their intrusiveness and incompetence.
"Unplugged metal detector triggers JFK chaos: sources," by Philip Messing and Candice M. Giove in the New York Post, June 24 (thanks to the Investigative Project):
These fools are keeping us safe?!?The TSA’s bungling reached a new low yesterday when a JFK Airport terminal had to be evacuated and hundreds of passengers marched back through security screening all because one dimwitted agent failed to realize his metal detector had been unplugged, sources told The Post.
The stunning error led to hours of delays, two planes called back from the runway and infinite frustration for furious passengers.
“The truth is, this is the failure of the most basic level of diligence,” a law-enforcement source said.
“How can you expect the public to feel confident of the mission of the TSA if they don’t even know if the lights are turned on?”
The chaos at Terminal 7 was caused by screener Alija Abdul Majed, who had manned Lane No. 1 during the morning shift with no idea his metal detector had no juice, sources said.
Amazingly, he failed to realize that alert lights never flashed once as streams of passengers filed through the dead detector, the sources said.
Majed was so clueless that he couldn’t even tell police how long the machine had been shut off or how it happened, the sources said.
“It was simply an unplugged machine — the TSA doing its best,” another source said.
Higher-ups at the Transportation Security Administration finally discovered the security boondoggle at 9:44 a.m. — leaving the Port Authority with no choice but to call for a complete evacuation of the international terminal that is home to British Airways, Cathay Pacific, United Airlines and others.
The extraordinary measure meant that two jumbo jets — including a San Francisco-bound United flight — had to return to the gate so passengers could be rescreened at a metal detector that was actually turned on.
The TSA would not confirm or deny that its detector had been unplugged, releasing a statement saying only that a metal detector suffered a “malfunction.”
Eight to 10 flights were delayed as a result of the power-cord bungle, sources said....
PA officials reopened the terminal at 11:45 a.m., two hours after they were called in to clean up the TSA mess, sources said.
“Obviously, the horse was out of the barn by the time we were notified,” a PA source said.
In scary twist, the source couldn’t be certain that every passenger who went through the powerless detector had been accounted for and hadn’t gotten on a flight....
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Searching for bombs or weapons inside a crowded terminal is exceedingly stupid to begin with...Anyone can walk in off the street right through the front door with their special luggage...or underwear...What are these TSA agents going to do if they actually find someone with blow up shorts?
The flights are safe enough, it's the terminals that are dangerous...