TSA Neutralizes Latest Threat to Your Flight Safety: Pierced Nipples
April 7, 2008
From Wired, Liminal States and the I’m-not-kidding-you-although-I-wish-I-was-dept: In the latest round of homeland stupidity, a woman flying out of Lubbock, Texas was forced to remove her nipple rings with pliers after the metal set off the magnetometer and she was told she would have to remove them, rather than just showing them to a screener.
The Transportation Security Administration doesn’t dispute Mandi Hamlin’s account of the February 24 incident, but says the screeners were right:
It appears that the Transportation Security Officers involved properly followed procedures in that incident. They rightly insisted that the alarm that was raised be resolved. TSA supports the thoroughness of the Officers involved as they were acting to protect the passengers and crews of the flights departing Lubbock that day.
TSA acknowledges that our procedures caused difficulty for the passenger involved and regrets her discomfort with the situation. In the future, TSA’s procedures will meet the security need while giving additional flexibility for this kind of screening situation.
This is surrealy and supremely foolish – who needs Orwellian fiction, or even Spinal Tap for that matter, when a pair of pierced nipples is deemed a security threat to the passengers and personnel of a commercial flight?
