Holes in airport security

last updated 8 January 2015

Washington, D.C.

Federal inspectors slipped fake guns and explosives past airport security in 24 percent of undercover tests conducted last month, USA Today reported this week. The agents were under orders not to try hard to conceal the dummy weapons, but they still got past metal detectors and X-ray inspections. The Transportation Security Administration conducted the spot checks at 32 of the nation’s largest airports. At three of them—Cincinnati, Jacksonville, Fla., and Las Vegas—screeners failed 50 percent of the tests. Los Angeles International Airport was not much better. Screeners there missed 41 percent of the potentially dangerous items. Security consultant Jack Plaxe said such a high failure rate was “just pathetic.”