TSA can’t even catch passeners with false IDs

Recent lapses in security by the TSA, including a Nigerian-American man who has apparently flown repeatedly with false boarding passes, have made it a rough week for the agency charged with protecting the public from terrorists and others.

Other recent mishaps include:

• The company that makes airport scanners say they’re safer than eating a banana. But some scientists with an expertise in imaging and cancer now say that the evidence made public to support these claims is unreliable and suggest that may be why the TSA won’t make the machines available for independent testing.
• ProRepublica also reports that security officials have briefed domestic and foreign airline officials about the possibility of terrorist groups finding ways to implant explosive devices in humans to blow up passenger jets. That was prompted by the implementatin of the controversial body scanners that can see under clothing.

The Nigerian-American man who called himself a “frequent traveler” was overlooked by the TSA (Transportation Security Administration).

He was only caught because he smelled bad but his case of almost comically evading airport security has a serious side that officials are still struggling to sort out.

But it’s gotten worse for the TSA, which is still reeling over its decision to force a 95-year-old woman in a wheelchair to take off her adult diaper when she went through security in Florida.

The arrested stowaway, Olajide Oluwaseun, has apparently been repeatedly flying around the country on false boarding passes. He is now in custody and charged with being a stowaway, a felony that could land him five years in jail.

"Obviously the system did not work the way it was supposed to," said Brian Jenkins, a transportation security expert at the Mineta Transportation Institute in San Jose and the Rand Corp. He told the LA Times: "Procedure was not followed."

 Bloggers had a lot of fun with the latest Nigerian and the diaper incident:  

“Nigerian man using fake ID and expired boarding passes flies across country undetected. TSA takes a break from feeling up your grandmother long enough to say, ‘oops, our bad,” wrote one.

Another wrote: “But he didn’t have more than 1.5 ounces of shampoo in his carry-on, so the TSA is still doing their jobs, right?” Another said simply: “I feel safer already.”

Part of the comic aspect of the case was that Noibi apparently views himself as a modern-day Frank Abagnale (“Catch me if you can”). After being arrested, he boasted on Facebook about his frequent travels.

But there’s also a serious side to it. Wrote the Economist:

“It seems like a story custom-designed to make those of us who have spent cumulative days of our lives in airport security lines wonder what the purpose of all that screening was. If Mr Noibi could fly under other people's names, using other people's boarding passes, why are we suffering through the indignities of ‘enhanced’ pat-downs and full-body scanners?”

The passenger in seat 3E aboard Virgin American Flight 415 from New York to Los Angeles would probably have eluded authorities if he had used deodorant. Passengers complained that he smelled bad.

When a flight attendant asked for his boarding pass, she saw it was from a different flight, but also in someone else’s name. Noibi went back to sleep while she told authorities. When the plane landed officials did not arrest Noibi, as you might expect, but instead allowed him to leave the airport.

He was later arrested while trying to board a Delta flight out of Los Angeles. Again, he went through security with an expired ticket issued in someone else’s name. Officials found at least ten other boarding passes; none of them were in his name, according to various newspaper accounts.

Law enforcement sources told The Los Angeles Times they suspect Noibi has used expired plane tickets to sneak on to flights in the past. On his website, Noibi describes himself as a "frequent traveler."
 

There’s no ready explanation of how the man got through several layers of security and then avoided arrest for five days after it was discovered he was a stowaway.

Experts blamed both the TSA and Virgin America for the lapses. They say both should have noticed the ticket was expired and not in Noibi’s name at the airport.

To further compound the lapses, he was allowed onboard by showing his expired university ID card, even though college identification cards are not on the TSA's list of valid IDs.

Experts were also perplexed at why officials allowed Noibi to leave LAX after the plane landed when he had clearly violated laws.

"The airline maintains security and other screening systems [are] in place to prevent such an occurrence; however, in this case it appears staff may have missed an alert when the passenger presented a boarding pass from a prior flight," said Virgin America spokeswoman Patricia Condon.

"We take security matters very seriously and are reviewing our training to ensure that this anomaly does not occur again."
 

By David Wilkening