“Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
~Benjamin Franklin
Pilot punished for pointing out airport security flaws with YouTube videos showing TSA shortcomings
The Daily Mail [UK]
24th December 2010
An airline pilot is in hot water with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for posting videos on YouTube pointing out what he believes are serious flaws in airport security.
Late last month a 50-year-old pilot, who asked that his name and the airline he works for not be made public, recorded mobile phone videos showing the problems that still exist in airport security systems.
The videos show how easily ground crews at San Francisco International Airport were able to access secure areas.
The man, who lives outside Sacramento, has worked for the airline for more than a decade and was deputised by the TSA to carry a gun in the cockpit.
But he said he’d had enough, and wanted to do what he could to draw attention to what he says is still a major problem in airport security.
‘People don’t understand that when they walk through the TSA checkpoints, well, they are getting, now they are getting a groping, but they don’t understand that all those people you see outside, the ground personal, all the caterers, all the airline cleaners, they get virtually nothing,’ the pilot said in an interview with ABC News. [Emphasis CAJ]
The man is also a helicopter test pilot in the Army Reserve and flew missions for the United Nations in Macedonia.
Three days after he posted six video clips recorded at the major airport, four federal air marshals and two sheriff’s deputies arrived at his house to confiscate his federally-issued firearm.
He was also asked to surrender his state-issued permit to carry a concealed weapon…
…The YouTube videos, posted on November 28, show what the pilot calls the irony of flight crews being forced to go through TSA screening while ground crew who service the planes simply have to swipe a card.
‘As you can see, airport security is kind of a farce. It’s only smoke and mirrors so you people believe there is actually something going on here,’ the pilot is heard saying… [Emphasis CAJ]
Read the entire article at the Daily Mail.
H/T GatewayPundit, Don’t Cross Big Sis…
There are video reports at both links.
A businessman accidentally travelled on a flight with a loaded handgun in his luggage after getting through security checks by TSA officials
