AIRLINE SECURITY

[TexasStooge]

AIRLINE SECURITY, PART 977: A passenger on a Southwest Airlines flight from Oakland, Calif., to Chicago, Ill., opened a violin case in flight and pulled out a martial arts weapon. He didn't hurt anyone, but the pilot called ahead to Midway Airport to report the weapon. "Officers were waiting for him at the gate, but the passenger tried to bolt," said a Chicago police spokesman. "He was acting strangely and started resisting," but was arrested. "Didn't the screeners in Oakland ever see any of the movies about Chicago gangsters in the 1930s?" asked airline consultant Michael Boyd. "Wasn't it guns they carried in violin cases?" But Transportation Security Administration officials defended the Oakland screeners. "We know the limitations of passenger screening," a TSA spokesman said, "which is why we've got a multi-layered system in place." (Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times) ...Translation: every layer in the system failed.