Want to Make Your Flight? Chill Out

'Total body imaging' devices look under clothes for weapons

(NEWSER) - New technology will allow screeners at Los Angeles International Airport to scan passengers with a device that effectively looks beneath their clothes, the LA Times reports. The “whole body imaging” machines are drawing mixed reviews—a TSA spokesman praised the "brand-new security tool," but an ACLU rep compared a scan to a “high-tech strip-search.” More»

While he was in a wheelchair

(NEWSER) - It seems absolutely no one is immune from the indignity of TSA pat-downs—not even a former secretary of state in a wheelchair. None other than Henry Kissinger was singled out for special screening on Friday, according to freelance journalist Matthew Cole , who, unlike TSA personnel, recognized the Nobel laureate. And Kissinger got "the full Monty," Cole tells the Washington Post . More»

...and it might be a 'domestic dispute' frame-up

(NEWSER) - Adventures in TSA screening:

• Weird: Agents at a Providence, Rhode Island, airport screened a 4-year-old's carry-on bag on Monday and spotted a gun inside. The weapon had been disassembled and hidden in three stuffed animals, reports USA Today .
• Weirder: Authorities took the gun but let the boy and his dad board their plane to Detroit anyway. Police suspect the man's wife, who was not traveling with them, planted the gun to get her husband in trouble as part of an "ongoing domestic dispute," reports CBS News .
• Priceless: "The main frame was inside a bear. A magazine loaded with two .40 caliber rounds was inside a bunny, and a firing pin was inside Mickey Mouse." From WHDH in Boston .

She was told to get scanned despite note from doctor

(NEWSER) - TSA agents forced a Denver teen to go to through a full-body scanner, which broke her $10,000 insulin pump, according to the girl. Savannah Barry, 16, says she approached agents with a letter from her doctor, and told them about the pump, but she was told to go through the scanner anyway, MSNBC reports. After the screening, Barry felt something was wrong, and called her mother, who contacted the pump's maker and was told the teen needed to take the pump off as soon as she landed because scanners can damage the device's software, interfering with insulin delivery. More»

...and the 7-year-old has cerebral palsy

(NEWSER) - Thank goodness for the Transportation Security Administration. Who else could protect us from potential villains like Dina Frank, a 7-year-old girl with cerebral palsy who was subjected to an aggressive screening in New York on Monday? Frank requires crutches and leg braces to walk, so she had to get a pat down instead of going through the metal detectors. Her parents tell The Daily that agents were rough with her, and insisted on a full inspection even after a supervisor had checked her crutches, making them miss their flight. More»