TSA

PIT, SEA and airport vendors offer food, resources to help to unpaid TSA, FAA workers.

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PIT, SEA airports offer food, resource assistance to unpaid TSA workers

The government shutdown continues and, at airports around the country, TSA and FAA workers are facing their first scheduled pay period with no paycheck.

Yet, they’re expected to keep on working.

To help out those employees and to show support, the Allegheny County Airport Authority is providing free lunches today to the more than 200 TSA and FAA employees who work at Pittsburgh International Airport and Allegheny County Airport.

Bagged lunches will be provided by Bruegger’s Bagels and will include a sandwich, chips, cookie and drink on all shifts for TSA agents and FAA air traffic controllers.

“We have not seen an impact on operations or lines here in Pittsburgh due to the shutdown, ” said Airport Authority CEO Christina Cassotis, “We are so thankful to the federal employees including TSA, FAA, Customs and others for continuing to work without pay at this critical time.”

The Airport Authority plans to continue providing the lunches on Fridays to federal workers until the government is reopen.

Help in Seattle

On the other side of the country, The Port of Seattle has put together a resource fair at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The goal: to help federal safety and security employees who are continuing to work without pay during the current federal government partial shutdown.

The fair will run Friday, January 11 and Monday, January 14 and include representatives from providers of short-term loans, employee assistance programs and others to make it easier for federal employees to learn about the services that are available and quickly get help.

If the government shutdown continues, the resource fair may be repeated.

“The federal workers who serve critical functions at the Port—as air traffic controllers, security checkpoint screeners, safety inspectors and other vital roles—deserve to be paid in a timely fashion for the work they do,” said Port of Seattle Commissioner Ryan Calkins, “Until our federal government ends this unnecessary and harmful shutdown, we will do everything in our power to help workers in our facilities find the resources they need to pay their bills.”

More help

Nationwide, Hudson Group, which operates shops in many airports, is offering a 20% discount off food, beverages and many store products to all TSA and customs employees starting today and continuing until the shutdown is resolved.

OTG, which operates retail outlets and restaurants in 10 airports, will offer TSA employees a 50 percent discount on food and beverage beginning Saturday, January 12 and continuing through the duration of the government shutdown.

Trend? Another airport invites non-travelers past security

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They do it at Pittsburgh International Airport. Now Seattle-Tacoma International Airport has a program to allow non-travelers past the security checkpoint to say goodbye to loved ones at the gate, have a meal or shop.

The new SEA Visitor Pass is a pilot program will run through December 14. But it if works out, non-ticketed airport visitors will be allowed to enter the post-security side of the terminal year-round.

Here’s how the program works:

  •  Entrance to the post-security side of the terminal is allowed from Tuesday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m and will be limited to 50 visitors each day.
  • Applications will be taken Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.  Non-ticketed visitors will need to  apply online before 1:30 p.m. the day before they want to enter.
  • TSA will review your application and notify you by midnight the day before if you are approved for entry.
  • Approved visitors will go through the standard security checkpoints, so all security requirements for any traveler will be in place for visitors as well.
  • Meeting travelers at their gate will be restricted to domestic arrivals.

“It’s been 17 years since anyone without a ticket has been able to enjoy areas of the airport beyond security,” said Port of Seattle Commissioner Ryan Calkins, “Yet some of the airport’s best features are there. Great restaurants, local musicians performing in the concourses, and some of the best views of the planes coming and going against the backdrop of Mt. Rainier and the Olympics.”

SEA is my home base airport and I can confirm that there are plenty of great reasons to want to hang out at this airport even if you’re not flying.  In addition to the art collection that includes work by Robert Rauschenberg, Louise Nevelson and others, SEA has a robust live music program and some great shops and restaurants. There’s also the newly-launched series of holiday celebrations planned throughout the year, including events to honor Native Heritage Month (November) and of course the upcoming December Season of Light.

Saying farewell to TSA’s social media star, “Blogger Bob” Burns

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Courtesy TSA

Readers of the StuckatTheAirport.com blog know that I often cite the TSA’s blog and Instagram accounts, which catalog the firearms and often  outrageous items that passengers try to take with them onto planes.

The creative and really funny TSA employee who has been responsible for these social media outlets died recently and I wrote a quick turn post for USA TODAY:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpIAOSqnTlj/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

Curtis Robert Burns, the Transportation Security Administration’s surprise social media star, passed away on Friday, October 19 at the age of 48 after a sudden illness.

Known as “Blogger Bob” to followers of the TSA blog and to the more than 950,000 subscribers of TSA’s Instagram account, Burns used what he called his corny, “dad humor” to educate the public about the work of the TSA and the rules regarding what passengers may and may not take with them onto airplanes.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BgZJTRRnk2-/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

On TSA’s blog, Burns shared a weekly count of the firearms TSA officers found at airport checkpoints and a summary of the knives and other often alarming prohibited items passengers packed in carry-on and checked bags and in their pockets, briefcases and purses.

He also filmed a humorous year-end video countdown of TSA’s Top Ten Most Unusual Finds where his dry wit was charmingly evident.

“His Top 10 items of ridiculous items found at the checkpoint reminded everyone that commonsense isn’t evenly distributed. And what screening officers did isn’t security theater. And if it were, the cast of characters were often those being screened and not doing the screening, as some suggest,” Michael Bilello, a TSA spokesperson noted in a statement announcing Burns’ death.

Thanks to Burns and his wry approach to sharing photos and comments about odd items discovered by TSA officers, TSA’s Instagram account won many honors, including three Webby Awards in 2018 and ranked fourth best by Rolling Stone in 2015.

Here’s Burns giving his Webby Award acceptance speech:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bi5qk5Bn45Q/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

During a TSA Facebook live, “Ask Me Anything” episode earlier this year, Burns attributed the success of TSA’s Instagram account in part to the shock value.

“People don’t come to a government Instagram account and expert to see humor,” he said, “And they also don’t expect to see these crazy things that people are trying to bring on a plane.”

His favorite item? The sandwich slicer that someone tried to bring on board, “Just like the ones you see at the deli!”

https://www.instagram.com/p/6Yhy4bF99C/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

According to an obituary in the Dayton Daily News, Burns was a chemical engineer for the U.S. army during Desert Storm, the father of two daughters and also lead singer and song writer for the “Big in Iowa” band.

TSA officer dance-off with tiny traveler

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Check out this fun dance-off between a young traver and a TSA officer at Newark Liberty International Airport. Thev video was posted on the TSA’s Instagram account and has gone viral.

Take a look.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BmeY3cxHAW9/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

This isn’t the first time a TSA officer with a sense of fun was caught on tape.

Here’s a video posted a while back of an officer matching the moves of a young traveler at Orlando International Airport.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BjdTf_RnNai/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

TSA’s Instagram account is surprisingly well-followed, sometimes alarming and often entertaining ( if corny) feed. Here are few examples:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BmPVRHJHbPE/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

https://www.instagram.com/p/BmAExOQnPwj/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

TSA’s Week in Review is dynamite

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Each week the Transporation Security Administration shares a tally of the firearms its officers find at airport checkpoints.

I find that list both fasciniating and frightening.

From June 4 through 10, for example, 78 firearms were found in carry-on bags at airport checkpoints around the country.

Of those 78 firearms, 61 were loaded and 25 had a round chambered.

Alarming? Yes. A record? Not at all.

The guns are scary, but so too are the other prohibited items that TSA tells us travelers try to take on board with them.

For example, last week’s ‘catch’ included the replica Improvised Explosive Device (IED) pictured above that was found in a traveler’s carry-on bag at the Chicago O’Hare International Airport.

It looks like it could be real and TSA reports that after finding this item, the checkpoint was closed down for almost 20 minutes before the Chicago Police Bomb Squad was able to respond and clear the item.

Most people found with firearms in their carryon bags tells the authorities that they just ‘forgot’ they had their guns in the bags they grabbed on the way to the airport. But that replica IED? What were they thinking???

101 firearms found last week at airport checkpoints

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Each week the Trasnportation Security Administration reports on the number of firearms its officers find at airport checkpoints.

And each week I get alarmed.

This week is no different.

TSA reports that between May 14 and 20 a total of 101 firearms were found at airport security checkpoints.

Of those 101 firearms, 85 were loaded and 28 had a load chambered.

101 firearms is a lot. But it’s not a record for the TSA, although it is close.

Between February 5 and 11 of this year, TSA found a record 104 firearms at airport checkpoints.

Why do people bring firearms – and loaded firearms- with them to the airport?

TSA says most people caught with a firearm at an airport simply say they ‘forgot’ their firearm was in the bag they’d packed for their trip…

 

Travel Tidbits: new pre-check airline + fresh art at Miami Int’l Airport

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Just in time for summer, we learn that the latest airline to join TSA’s pre-check program is British Airways, bringing to 53 the number of airlines participating in the program.

And Miami International Airport has some new, high-flying art:

The new work is called ‘Ando Volando’ (I’m Flying) and is by Miami-based artist Emilio Adán Martínez. Look for it in the Concourse E satellite. The new kite-like artwork has a companion display, ‘Andan Volando’ (They are flying), located inside Concourse D.

Both installations are constructed with paper, string and Australian pine branches and are meant to resemble kites and boats and suggest the idea of flight.

TSA cleans up with three Webby Awards

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https://www.instagram.com/p/BgUaXMdHEH8/?hl=en&taken-by=tsa

Judging by the negative emails I get everytime I share what I find to be an alarming tally of guns found by the Transportation Security Administration at airport security checkpoints each week, not everyone is a fan of the agency’s work.

But the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS) evidently loves TSA’s work on the internet.

Last week the group awarded the TSA Instagram account three coveted Webby Awards, which honor excellence on the Internet.  “We’re not in the entertainment business,” Bob Burns, TSA’s social media lead and caption writer for the agency’s Instagram account said in a statement,  “But mixing humor with our messaging has been a very successful formula for us.”

“TSA’s Instagram Account won these three awards:

Webby Award: Social Content – Marketing / Corporate Communications 
Webby Award: Social Content Marketing – / Weird 
People’s Voice Award: Social Content Marketing – / Weird 

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bh-E7kbnSxO/?hl=en&taken-by=tsa

 

 

Want TSA PreCheck? Go buy some paper.

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Summer is coming and checkpoint security lines at airports around the country are going to get longer.

So if you haven’t signed up for TSA’s PreCheck program yet, now would be a good time.

Don’t want to take an extra trip to the airport to do that? You may not have to if you’ve got a Staples office supply story nearby.

Staples office supply company and Idemia, the company that has the TSA contract to enroll people in the PreCheck program, have teamed up to set up IdentoGO enrollment centers in 50 Staples stores.

The cost of enrollment in the TSA PreCheck program is $85 and is good for five years at $17 per year.

Need to get new passport photo or a certified birth certificate?  Those IdentoGO Centers at Staples will help with those too.

 And if Staples isn’t in your community, check this site for another place to sign-up for TSA PreCheck.

It’s only February and TSA has set a new record

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It was alarming to learn that during 2017,  the Transportation Security Administration found a record setting 3,957 firearms in carry-on bags at airport checkpoints.

That was 16.7 percent (556 more) firearms than found in 2016, when ‘only’ 3,391 firearms were found.

Will 2018 see a dip in the number of firearms passengers bring to the security checkpoints?

Not likely: It’s only February and another record has been broken: between February 5th and 11th, TSA found a record breaking 104 firearms in carry-on bags. Of those 104 firearms, 87 were loaded and 38 had a round chambered.

The previous week-long record? 96 firearms found during one week in July 2017.