Friday
27 Jul 2007
Recent Aviation Threats: “Pinging” the System?
By Annie Jacobsen in category Airport Security & Screening
On Thursday, federal officials evacuated Long Beach Airport after TSA screeners found a suspicious item in a bag. The item turned out to be a prototype for a new toy, designed for Mattel, Inc. The Emergency Response & Research Institute (ERRI) offers this interesting, if not flawed, analysis:
"Pinging the System?" — Continued Threats at Airports
LONG BEACH, CA: The latest "threat" has caused evacuation of the main terminal at Long Beach airport this morning. It is one of an increasing number of "threats" to the aviation sector that have occurred in the past month or two. Most have turned out to be completely unfounded and some even incomprehensible in the context of what could constitute a real danger to airplanes, airports, or passengers. The question is: Are these threats just a "pinging of the system" to continue to increase the unease of the American traveling public?…or are they actually misdirection, designed to mislead authorities from a real developing threat from another direction?
ERRI analysts are monitoring a myriad of potential indicators and warnings at the present time, including this series of unusual incidents at airports. We have also previously reported our concerns about some sort of terror event in the United States this Summer or Fall, and about what we see as perceived similarities in the present threat environment and those of the Summer of 2001.
We will continue to watch current events and patterns very closely for additional data points and keep you advised about our findings. Watch EmergencyNet News for more on this emerging story…
ERRI is a solid source of emergency news accessed by many law enforcement officers. But their above analysis is flawed because the Long Beach incident should remain wholly separate from the series of unusual and suspicious incidents that have occurred inside US airports of late — specifically the mock IEDs (improvised explosive device) reported by national news organizations all week.
The passengers involved in the mock IED incidents, according to the TSA, were carrying "several items resembling IED components such as a wire coil wrapped around a possible initiator, an electrical switch, batteries, three tubes, and two blocks of cheese." In another incident, the item resembling the IED was made up of a "block of brown of clay-like minerals, and pipes…with a 9-volt battery, wires." (Read about all four incidents.) When the individuals in these incidents were question by law enforcement about the suspicious items, they offered "questionable explanations" as to why they were carrying such things. For this reason, according to the TSA, the "investigations are ongoing." But in the case of the Mattel toy prototype, the individual had a fact-checkable answer. The Los Angeles Times reports:
The device was a prototype of a new toy for Mattel Inc. and was being flown to the Northeast by a contractor who was working for the toy maker, law enforcement officials said.
The TSA screener who further alerted higher ups about the odd item, toy or no toy, should be given a gold star. The fact that federal officials decided to evacuate the airport is indicative of the current threat level. So what constitutes a "real threat" to airplanes, airports and passengers? The Islamic fundamentalist threat.