Passenger Skips TSA ID Check, Boards American Airlines Flight Without A Ticket
A woman skipped the TSA ID checker at the Nashville airport, since she didn’t have a boarding pass to fly that day. She went through regular screening, and proceeded to an American Airlines gate – where she got on a flight to Los Angeles without a boarding pass.
She was questioned by the FBI in Los Angeles, but not charged. The TSA now says it “is now upping their security measures” at the airport by blocking off the lanes that are not in use.
After the woman jumped the barrier on Feb. 7, she filed into a line to have her bag(s) screened, TSA adds. TSA said in a statement the woman was able to board a flight, adding that she did not have a boarding pass.
#BREAKING out of Nashville. @TSA confirmed a woman breached airport security @Fly_Nashville and was able to board a flight without a ticket. @FOXNashville
— Sydney Keller (@sakeller21) February 14, 2024
NEW INFO: FBI confirms with me that the woman was flying American Airlines and made it all the way to Los Angeles. @FOXNashville https://t.co/eFBg6Q9ZT6
— Kylie Walker (@kyliewalkertv) February 14, 2024
TSA emphasizes that the passenger “was physically screened, along with their carry-on items, without incident at the Nashville International Airport security checkpoint on February 7th before boarding the flight.” The implication is that the lapse by TSA, allowing someone without a boarding pass through the checkpoint, wasn’t a big deal. But if that were true, why have ID checks in the first place?
The reason we have to show ID (or otherwise be identified) is to check passenger identities against government targeting databases. There’s no point in adding someone to a no fly list if they can just change the name they’re traveling under.
Of course those lists themselves are highly flawed: not subject to due process, people get added by mistake or in retaliation for refusing to cooperate with government agencies, so being on such a list doesn’t correlate with actually being a terrorist. There are two million people on these watchlists. When everyone’s a terrorist, nobody is.
Interestingly, as TSA has replaced showing a boarding pass with just requiring ID (and matching IDs to airline reservations), people increasingly go through checkpoints without actually being checked in for their flights.
