Questions upon questions surround the much-talked about case of Bonnie Sweeten, but there's one question that can affect you and your safety.
How did Bonnie Sweeten slip past security and all those annoying TSA screeners and get on a plane to Florida using someone else's ID?
Jill Jenkinson, a friend and co-worker, reportedly lent Sweeten her drivers license thinking Sweeten needed to borrow it to fix Jenkinson's 401(k). Bucks County District Attorney Michelle Henry said Jenkinson did nothing wrong.
Prosecutors say Sweeten took that ID and used it to help pay for two one-way tickets with cash -- one for her and one for her 9-year old daughter. Didn't that raise some eyebrows by screeners, or at the ticket counter?
Harry Hairston and the NBC10 Investigators called the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
TSA officials said there's no need to investigate: "Our job is to screen for explosives and prohibited items." They added that the agency employs several methods to determine if an ID is fraudulent. The Bucks County mom used the names Jillian and Noel Jenkinson in order to slip through security undetected.
US Airways, the airline that Sweeten flew on Tuesday afternoon, issued the following statement to Hairston:
"We are continuing to cooperate with the on-going investigation. To maintain the integrity of that investigation, its not appropriate for us to say anything further right now."
But Congressman Rob Andrews of New Jersey who sits on a Congressional Subcommittee on Terrorism and Unconventional Threats and Capabilities says he thinks the TSA dropped the ball on security and that this has some scary implications for all of us..
"It could have been a lot worse than that, if the person using the fake ID went on the plane to cause harm to people, it could have been a much more disastrous result," the Congressman told Hairston.
Andrews plans to take action and hold TSA accountable. In the meantime, take a look at the picture of the woman whose license Sweeten allegedly used.
Do you think Sweeten could pass for her ex-coworker, Jill Jenkinson?
