A “security incident” at Colorado’s Aspen-Pitkin County Airport (KASE) that caused an evacuation of the terminal building and caused multiple flight delays on Sunday (April 13) was ultimately traced to a “modified hairdryer” detected by security scanners in a checked bag. According to a report in Aspen Daily News, Transportation Security Administration spokesperson Lorie Dankers said the airport’s computer tomography (CT) scanner’s algorithm was triggered by a hairdryer that was “heavily modified with tape.”
So now you know.
If you use duct tape to fix the hair dryer which was dropped, not only will your entire female side of the family denigrate you as a cheapskate (wear the badge with pride), but airport security will think you have a bomb.
And then the women will laugh at you some more and your grand kids will be telling the story in 80 years time…
Essentially 3 possibilities. 1. The quality of the training given the security screeners has decreased to a point where they can’t tell a hair dryer from a bomb. 2. The quality of the people hired by TSA has decreased to a point where the people they are hiring have such poor recognition skills that they cannot tell a hair dryer from a bomb. 3. The equipment being used by TSA is of such poor resolution that it makes it impossible for even the best supervisor on duty to determine whether an object is a hair dryer or a bomb. Correcting any one of the 3 problems will be an expensive solution, caused by someone, at a high supervisory level being incompetent to make proper decisions. DOGE! where are you when we NEED you!
DOGE might, because they are outside the mechanisms of government, but anyone from the FAA or TSA will just make it worse. The most feared 9 words in the English language: “I’m from the government and I’m here to help!”
“Heavily modified” - how much can duct tape (assuming that was the tape used) modify a hair dryer to make it look dangerous? Common sense IS in short supply in the TSA nowadays.
“Heavily modified” - how much can duct tape (assuming that was the tape used) modify a hair dryer to make it look dangerous?
I would assume that the ‘heavily modified’ descriptor would indicate that additions were taped in place, and that those additions produced a suspicious profile. As an example, a piece of plastic pipe - covered with duct tape - could be used as an augmentor tube [who remembers Jetex engines?]. Such an arrangement could resemble a pistol with a suppressor.