So was this recent bit of
Swatting a result of showing flaws in the system or disgruntled TSA agents being shown up and using stolen phones as burners.
You don't even need to be on a plane with a unopened soda can to have possible threats.
At least five bomb threats were phoned in Tuesday against flights originating or landing in the United States, government sources told NBC News. The sources said that the threats were not deemed credible.
Four of the five flights — one each from US Airways, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and the Mexican carrier Volaris — landed. The fifth, Korean Air Flight 23 from Seoul to San Francisco, was still in the air, scheduled to land Tuesday afternoon.
In Philadelphia, police met the US Airways plane, Flight 648 from San Diego, when it landed. NBC Philadelphia reported that a police bomb squad, including dogs, searched the plane and passengers and gave the all-clear.
The acting head of the Transportation Security Administration was reassigned late Monday after a watchdog report revealed undercover agents were able to sneak fake explosives and banned weapons through checkpoints as part of an investigation that revealed a massive, system-wide security failure at America's airports.
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson announced that TSA Acting Administrator Melvin Carraway had been sent to work in the department's Office of State and Local Law Enforcement. Acting Deputy Director Mark Hatfield will take over the TSA until a new acting administrator is appointed. Earlier this year, President Obama nominated Coast Guard Vice Admiral Peter Neffenger to be the TSA's permanent administrator.
Homeland Security officials confirmed to Fox News earlier Monday that TSA screeners failed 67 out of 70 tests -- or 96 percent -- carried out by special Department of Homeland Security investigators known as "red teams," as part of a DHS inspector general review.
Tahera Ahmad, a 31-year-old associate chaplain at Northwestern University in Illinois, claimed in a post on Facebook Friday that she was discriminated against when a flight attendant refused to give her an unopened can of Diet Coke but then gave a nearby passenger an unopened can of beer.
She wrote that the flight attendant told her: "'We are unauthorized to give unopened cans to people because they may use it as a weapon on the plane.'"
A Facebook post by Tahera Ahmad, a Muslim chaplain about being denied an unopened can of soda on a United Airlines Flight has sparked an uproar on social media. via Facebook.
The incident was taken to another, ugly, level by a passenger allegedly then spewing hate at Ahmad, saying, "'you Moslem (sic), you need to shut the f--k up. ... Yes, you know you would use it as a weapon, so shut the f--k up,'" according to her Facebook post.
Tue Jun 09, 2015 at 2:53 PM PT: Whistleblowers on Tuesday portrayed the beleaguered Transportation Security Administration as an agency mired in a culture of “fear and distrust” while raising security concerns over several programs -- including TSA PreCheck, in which passes for expedited screening allegedly are passed out “like Halloween candy.”
The TSA employees leveled their criticism during a Senate hearing that follows recent bombshell inspector general reports. One showed undercover agents were able to sneak fake explosives and banned weapons through airport checkpoints about 96 percent of the time; the findings led to the acting TSA secretary being reassigned last week. A second report released Monday showed the agency failed to flag 73 commercial airport workers "linked to terrorism."
The hearing was cut short by a bomb threat, though investigators did not find anything hazardous.
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