Paranoid Passengers Take Over TSA’s Job
Passengers on a flight from Philly to Dallas ID suspicious bag and turn plane around
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ARLINGTON, VA - MARCH 27: Transportation Security officers (L-R) Lloyd Lewis, and Paul Smith demonstrate Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) Systems Integration Facility, a new explosives screening system which DHS planned to deploy to airports around the country, during a press event by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano as she unveiled the DHS Efficiency Review Initiative March 27, 2009 at Ronald Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia. Napolitano rolled out her plans on cutting unnecessary spending within her department hoping to save hundreds of millions of dollars. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Call it a heightened awareness or increased paranoia, but passengers on a flight from Philly to Dallas Thursday made the taxiing plane turn around because of an abandoned bag on the aircraft.
A Somali national stepped away from the gate for Flight 1183 to Dallas at about 2:30 p.m. Thursday and asked another passenger to watch his carry-on bag, says TSA authorities. A TSA officer found the man’s behavior suspicious and removed him from the plane after he had boarded.
The plane began taxiing down the runway but TSA officials who removed the suspicious man failed to make sure he took his bag off the plane. Passengers quickly alerted crewmembers that the Somalian’s carry-on luggage was still on the plane and the pilot turned the aircraft around.
The man was detained because there were questions about whether or not he had a green card. There was nothing suspicious in his bags. He was allowed to board another flight.
There’s no wonder from where the passengers’ panic could have come. With an attempted plane bombing in Detroit on Christmas Day, and recent reports of three Philly airport bomb-sniffing dogs failing recertification tests, passengers are taking security into their own hands.
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