Woman attacked with knife in Newark Airport Terminal

[whattheheck]

abc7ny.com/post/man-charged-after-attacking-woman-knife-newark-airport-terminal/15232393/

How in the world did he get into the terminal without the knife being detected by TSA and without having a ticket?

[pixy0stix]

Without reading the article, I can tell you how - TSA is a farce. All they catch are the people that forgot they had a pocket knife in their pants, or didn't know they could bring XYZ with them. There have been many documented incidents of people getting items through when they just put in a little effort.

[wanderingback]

I think it would be easy to get a weapon through TSA. I read a different article and it does seem a little unclear if she was at the gate though. It’s definitely also possible to make it through without a ticket, although that seems a little harder without planning and this person did not seem to have been scoping out the place, especially since he just got out of jail. This man clearly has mental health problems based on articles. Sad and scary.

[TR]

Aug 29, 2024 7:47:16 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Without reading the article, I can tell you how - TSA is a farce. All they catch are the people that forgot they had a pocket knife in their pants, or didn't know they could bring XYZ with them. There have been many documented incidents of people getting items through when they just put in a little effort.

Yeah, that’s the only part of this that isn’t at all surprising. TSA is a joke. A friend just flew to us in DFW from Denver this summer and realized when he got here that he had his pocket knife on him.

[candreco]

Aug 29, 2024 7:56:00 GMT -5 TR said:

Aug 29, 2024 7:47:16 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Without reading the article, I can tell you how - TSA is a farce. All they catch are the people that forgot they had a pocket knife in their pants, or didn't know they could bring XYZ with them. There have been many documented incidents of people getting items through when they just put in a little effort.

Yeah, that’s the only part of this that isn’t at all surprising. TSA is a joke. A friend just flew to us in DFW from Denver this summer and realized when he got here that he had his pocket knife on him.

Yup, I apparently had a pocket knife buried in the bottom of a hiking backpack that made it through TSA at Dulles, used the pack for two weeks and had no idea it was in there.  Imagine my surprise when they caught it on the return trip at Sea-Tac.

[pixy0stix]

Aug 29, 2024 7:56:00 GMT -5 TR said:

Aug 29, 2024 7:47:16 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Without reading the article, I can tell you how - TSA is a farce. All they catch are the people that forgot they had a pocket knife in their pants, or didn't know they could bring XYZ with them. There have been many documented incidents of people getting items through when they just put in a little effort.

Yeah, that’s the only part of this that isn’t at all surprising. TSA is a joke. A friend just flew to us in DFW from Denver this summer and realized when he got here that he had his pocket knife on him.

But if he would have had food with him TSA Denver would have stopped him.

[TR]

Aug 29, 2024 8:05:32 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Aug 29, 2024 7:56:00 GMT -5 TR said:

Yeah, that’s the only part of this that isn’t at all surprising. TSA is a joke. A friend just flew to us in DFW from Denver this summer and realized when he got here that he had his pocket knife on him.

But if he would have had food with him TSA Denver would have stopped him.

H got multiple (fairly invasive) patdowns at DFW because of a Tupperware container of pancake mix.

[StrawberryBlondie]

Aug 29, 2024 8:05:32 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Aug 29, 2024 7:56:00 GMT -5 TR said:

Yeah, that’s the only part of this that isn’t at all surprising. TSA is a joke. A friend just flew to us in DFW from Denver this summer and realized when he got here that he had his pocket knife on him.

But if he would have had food with him TSA Denver would have stopped him.

TSA at LAX was all over my (sealed, unopened) diet coke last weekend.

[basilosaurus]

Aug 29, 2024 7:59:56 GMT -5 candreco said:

Aug 29, 2024 7:56:00 GMT -5 TR said:

Yeah, that’s the only part of this that isn’t at all surprising. TSA is a joke. A friend just flew to us in DFW from Denver this summer and realized when he got here that he had his pocket knife on him.

Yup, I apparently had a pocket knife buried in the bottom of a hiking backpack that made it through TSA at Dulles, used the pack for two weeks and had no idea it was in there.  Imagine my surprise when they caught it on the return trip at Sea-Tac.

I had nail scissors that had been through multiple countries (I just keep them in my toiletries bag) before they were confiscated. By an airport that had allowed them multiple times. Apparently they were too pointy by some arbitrary standard. That's not tsa, but it's kind of the same globally ime.

We don't have ez porn ovens, just standard metal detectors, and I usually set off the detector and get a pat down despite having absolutely no metal on my body, not even a bra clasp. But I can leave my shoes on. Tsa would make me take off my rubber slippers. Do not look for logic

There have been reports of people getting kilos of drugs through tsa. A knife shocks me not at all.

[TR]

Aug 29, 2024 8:25:54 GMT -5 StrawberryBlondie said:

Aug 29, 2024 8:05:32 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

But if he would have had food with him TSA Denver would have stopped him.

TSA at LAX was all over my (sealed, unopened) diet coke last weekend.

Yeah, but that’s actually not allowed lol

[pixy0stix]

I travel with bubble gum, and if I keep it in my bag I get stopped every time. Now I just pull out all my food items in a separate ziplock and keep it out in the open, even though with precheck I shouldn't have to. It's ridiculous. All of it is ridiculous.

[StrawberryBlondie]

Aug 29, 2024 9:07:53 GMT -5 TR said:

Aug 29, 2024 8:25:54 GMT -5 StrawberryBlondie said:

TSA at LAX was all over my (sealed, unopened) diet coke last weekend.

Yeah, but that’s actually not allowed lol

Oh, I know. I totally forgot I had it.

[Tacocat]

When I traveled 2 weeks ago, the TSA agent only asked for my ID.
Didn’t even look if I had a ticket. So would it be possible to get thru security with no ticket??

[stuffandthings]

Potentially hot take: the TSA is not and never has been about preventing violence or terrorism. It has always been about giving people enough of an illusion of safety so that they feel secure enough to fly, because after 9/11 the government was afraid that everyone would stop flying and the airline companies would all go bankrupt. I had a friend who used to be a TSA agent and said basically the whole thing is a sham to keep consumers coming to the airports.

[basilosaurus]

Aug 29, 2024 9:24:22 GMT -5 Tacocat said:

When I traveled 2 weeks ago, the TSA agent only asked for my ID.
Didn’t even look if I had a ticket. So would it be possible to get thru security with no ticket??

I think because there are multiple checkpoints for tickets it might be that they assume someone else is checking. Redundancy can also lead to complacency.

It's also probably pretty easy to fake if you're not planning on boarding. Isn't it sometimes a cursory glance to make sure name on the id and pass align?

[pixy0stix]

Aug 29, 2024 9:34:19 GMT -5 stuffandthings said:

Potentially hot take: the TSA is not and never has been about preventing violence or terrorism. It has always been about giving people enough of an illusion of safety so that they feel secure enough to fly, because after 9/11 the government was afraid that everyone would stop flying and the airline companies would all go bankrupt. I had a friend who used to be a TSA agent and said basically the whole thing is a sham to keep consumers coming to the airports.

It's not a hot take around here. We've been talking about what a sham TSA has been since forever. If you see mention of "porn ovens" it's because we've been calling the ridiculous scanners they use that since they first came out. 

Now that I bring that up, I wonder why they're still being used. Surely the contract for them that lined several political pockets is up now.

[pixy0stix]

I would guess that the attacker didn't come through a TSA checkpoint, though. He probably snuck in through however airport workers access the terminal.

[Tacocat]

Aug 29, 2024 9:34:54 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

Aug 29, 2024 9:24:22 GMT -5 Tacocat said:

When I traveled 2 weeks ago, the TSA agent only asked for my ID.
Didn’t even look if I had a ticket. So would it be possible to get thru security with no ticket??

I think because there are multiple checkpoints for tickets it might be that they assume someone else is checking. Redundancy can also lead to complacency.

It's also probably pretty easy to fake if you're not planning on boarding. Isn't it sometimes a cursory glance to make sure name on the id and pass align?

If I hadn’t checked a bag no one would’ve looked at a boarding pass until I was at the gate boarding the plane.

[wawa]

My take on the TSA - If they're going to give us so much security theater, they could AT LEAST throw in a few catchy show tunes.

I'm sorry this happened to this woman. Sounds like it was very random, which is worse in some ways.

[onthemove]

Aug 29, 2024 10:10:35 GMT -5 Tacocat said:

Aug 29, 2024 9:34:54 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

I think because there are multiple checkpoints for tickets it might be that they assume someone else is checking. Redundancy can also lead to complacency.

It's also probably pretty easy to fake if you're not planning on boarding. Isn't it sometimes a cursory glance to make sure name on the id and pass align?

If I hadn’t checked a bag no one would’ve looked at a boarding pass until I was at the gate boarding the plane.

this is standard now, there’s no ticket check at TSA. I’m assuming they are cross referencing databases, of ID and ticketed passengers from the airlines.

[heyyounotyouyou]

Aug 29, 2024 10:34:23 GMT -5 onthemove said:

Aug 29, 2024 10:10:35 GMT -5 Tacocat said:

If I hadn’t checked a bag no one would’ve looked at a boarding pass until I was at the gate boarding the plane.

this is standard now, there’s no ticket check at TSA. I’m assuming they are cross referencing databases, of ID and ticketed passengers from the airlines.

Yes, by entering your ID in the system they can see you have a ticket so no need to see a physical one. This is actually more secure then showing a ticket. 

[meanie]

I agree it isn't surprising. We had zero issues with the US customs or TSA when we travelled abroad, but the Dulles airport security opened everyone's luggage and thoroughly searched it by hand. They found a tiny box of matches that we didn't realize we had, while US customs laughed about how many bottles of wine were clanking around in our bags.

[flygirl]

Newark is the absolute fucking worst

[wildrice]

Aug 29, 2024 10:10:35 GMT -5 Tacocat said:

Aug 29, 2024 9:34:54 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

I think because there are multiple checkpoints for tickets it might be that they assume someone else is checking. Redundancy can also lead to complacency.

It's also probably pretty easy to fake if you're not planning on boarding. Isn't it sometimes a cursory glance to make sure name on the id and pass align?

If I hadn’t checked a bag no one would’ve looked at a boarding pass until I was at the gate boarding the plane.

I am pretty sure this was the case on my most recent flight from Houston - nobody looked at my ticket, just my ID, until they scanned it to get on the plane. I had a carry on only. 

[basilosaurus]

Aug 29, 2024 10:44:41 GMT -5 heyyounotyouyou said:

Aug 29, 2024 10:34:23 GMT -5 onthemove said:

this is standard now, there’s no ticket check at TSA. I’m assuming they are cross referencing databases, of ID and ticketed passengers from the airlines.

Yes, by entering your ID in the system they can see you have a ticket so no need to see a physical one. This is actually more secure then showing a ticket. 

That's if you go through all proper channels, not if you're relying on a physical glance.

[basilosaurus]

Aug 29, 2024 15:00:27 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

Aug 29, 2024 10:44:41 GMT -5 heyyounotyouyou said:

Yes, by entering your ID in the system they can see you have a ticket so no need to see a physical one. This is actually more secure then showing a ticket. 

That's if you go through all proper channels, not if you're relying on a physical glance.

don't put me on the side of security theater. I'm speculating.

I'm not even sure I should share what I experience in other countries, but I figure if I experience it as a civilian then it's public.

[wanderingback]

Yeah there is def new technology happening with "security" regarding IDs and getting your picture taken. I don’t know if it’s more secure and I haven’t had the energy to do a deep dive but yes they seem to just take your ID and then take your picture. This has happened on all 5 or so flights I’ve taken this year. I’m sure some airports might be different.

[TR]

Aug 29, 2024 15:00:27 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

Aug 29, 2024 10:44:41 GMT -5 heyyounotyouyou said:

Yes, by entering your ID in the system they can see you have a ticket so no need to see a physical one. This is actually more secure then showing a ticket. 

That's if you go through all proper channels, not if you're relying on a physical glance.

They're not just glancing at it. They're scanning it through a machine that basically pulls up your boarding pass info. They can tell if you're pre-check or not just by scanning your ID and taking a photo that's running facial recognition to match you up.

[rubytue]

Aug 29, 2024 9:24:22 GMT -5 Tacocat said:

When I traveled 2 weeks ago, the TSA agent only asked for my ID.
Didn’t even look if I had a ticket. So would it be possible to get thru security with no ticket??

My understanding is that they scan the ID and cross reference is with the passenger lists. At least that’s what a guy told me when I asked why he didn’t need my boarding pass. 

[Deleted]

But also….other than (theoretically) only allowing ticketed passengers through the checkpoint, and perhaps checking names (and potentially facial features) through databases of racially profiled “threat data”, none of that actually makes us any safer. Theoretically scanning bags and removing weapons DOES make us safer, if it’s done correctly (which it typically isn’t).