A woman flying from Newark to San Francisco International Airport this morning apparently thought it would be an acceptable idea to stow some Claymore land mines packed with shrapnel in her checked luggage. more ›

Oakland Airport TSA security screeners wasted both time and money busting a guy for carrying a stash of marijuana inside a jar of Skippy peanut butter on Sunday. "Nico Melendez, a TSA spokesman, said airport security screeners at the Oakland airport saw on the X-ray the jar inside the man's luggage and noticed something suspicious inside," notes Kristin J. Bender's excellent account for The Oakland Tribune. "What they found was less than half a sandwich bag full of marijuana. Melendez did not know the specific amount of marijuana that was confiscated." more ›

What's up with TSA inspectors these days? First they're leaving inappropriate notes for ladies who travel with (ahem) electronic accessories and now Freddie Gibbs, a rapper from Gary, Indiana, received the following note on his baggage inspection notice after those prying hands apparently found a stash of weed in his checked baggage: "C'mon son". more ›

An unnamed pilot based at SFO and residing in Sacramento is catching heat from some camera-phone videos he posted to YouTube showing lax security at the airport. The pilot was part of the federal flight deck officer program, which allowed him to carry a TSA-issued weapon on board planes in order to protect against terrorism. After the videos emerged, the TSA suspended him from the program and visited his home to make him surrender his weapon. He will, however, continue to serve as a pilot. more ›

If only because it sounds like something that really might happen here, and not unlike a scene from the Folsom Street Fair, a fake news item went around yesterday about a sexually dysfunctional interior designer with piercings on his manhood who ejaculated during a TSA screening at SFO. The story comes from Dead Serious News, which if you click over to the About page says they're a satirical website, but perhaps this piece of mildly homophobic satire just sounded too good. more ›

Hey, did you hear about that "Bikini Traveler" gal who was all over the news last week? Well, we somehow missed it until last night. In an effort to avoid the dreaded pat-down as part of the new heightened airport security measures, Sonoma County-native Corrine Theile, who is apparently a seasoned triathlete, wore a bikini under her coat and boots while going through LAX security en route to the Bay Area on Wednesday. more ›

Ever since John Tyner bravely asked a TSA agent not to sexually assault him -- the 31-year-old Oceanside software engineer now faces prosecution and $11,000 in civil penalties -- Jonathan Mann came up with this ditty about the much-feared Transportation Security Administration. more ›

A flight into SFO was diverted to Colorado Springs on Saturday because a guy got drunk and ornery at the back of the plane and was demanding more booze. Apparently, this situation was a serious enough national security risk that two F-16s had to be deployed to provide an escort to the plane in its emergency landing. WTF, people. Couldn't the flight attendants just have slapped this guy, or rufied him, or something? KRON4's full coverage of this event, after the jump. more ›

What's the latest weapon in the war on terror? Why, it's a full-body scanner that will soon be the mainstay of airport security checkpoints. The TSA is reviewing several pieces of technology for implementation in the near term which bounce "harmless radio waves" off the body in order to detect "anomalies" such as explosives in the underwear. The Today show's Ann Curry is particularly worried that everyone's genitals will be on display, but a shill for the full-body-scanner industry demonstrates that dangly parts and private areas are "pretty well masked." more ›

The big news this post-Xmas weekend was, of course, that little punk who boarded the plane in Nigeria and tried to blow up that Northwest/Delta flight landing in Detroit on Friday. He failed, of course, but fearing that there are more sleeper operatives out there trying to bring down planes using similar measures, the TSA has imposed a slew of "unpredictable" new restrictions and precautions, including (according to the passengers in the ABC 7 video that follows) not letting passengers out of their seats for the last hour of the flight, and not telling passengers when they would be landing. International travelers are being subjected to all kinds of new pat-downs and interrogations, and there were a number of reported incidents of suspicious persons being escorted off planes. more ›

A company that provides a service we never even heard of called the Clear Registered Traveler Program has abruptly gone out of business, KCBS reports. Clear operated special security lanes at 20 airports around the country, including all 3 Bay Area airports, purporting to provide (for a $200 annual membership fee) a pre-screening service for frequent travelers that would allow them to scoot through security as if they were trusted government dignitaries. But as the WSJ puts it, "TSA never was comfortable with the notion of 'trusting' any travelers, so the security benefits of a Clear card boiled down to getting a special lane and some staff to help carry plastic tubs for you." Yeah, no wonder it flopped. more ›