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Airport security fail
We give the TSA a lot of well-deserved guff here on Gadling, but we can't blame them for the picture above, which shows a security officer at Marco Polo Airport in Venice, Italy, occupying his or her time with a bit of solitaire.
You're off the hook this time, TSA. But we still haven't forgotten about this.
[Photo courtesy of FailBlog, via the Vagabondish Twitter feed]
Check out these other stories from the airport checkpoint!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
H Jan 12th 2010 9:03PM
No, I think this is worse than the TSA guy sleeping. It isn't clear if the guy was sleeping because he was off duty or on a break, but this is OBVIOUSLY occurring during a time when their attention should be focused elsewhere. Plus, many companies have firewalls to prevent their employees from wasting time or diverting their attention away from their jobs. Why wouldn't airport security have the same measures?
I'm okay with most security measures, even the ones some people feel are intrusive, but this makes me angry. It's one thing to inconvenience passengers in the name of safety, but employing people who don't take their jobs seriously poses more of a threat than carrying a 3oz bottle of hairspray on an airplane.
Dan Jan 14th 2010 10:12AM
Government employee, right along with the others in Washington
krboatman Jan 14th 2010 7:58AM
not too sure thats a TSA employee.....no insignias on her sleeves or any other TSA emblems anywhere to be seen and even though it looks like an outline of a badge above her left breast i would say it's just the way the shirt is laying on her....and being close to someone who is a TSA employee i see the uniform from time to time so i know a little of what i speak about and i think this is just the usual rabblerousing and intentional fraudulant reporting that the "get the attention" of the consumer "it's all about the ratings and forget the facts" media is presently employing to fit their agenda and get their desired results...and u dipshits....this was taken in Italy....read the article and quit being sheeple and learn to think and do for yourselves.........looks like to me a plane passenger standing in line with her passport in hand.....ya'll are gullible and extremely ignorant and just not very observant.....or maybe you just have your own agenda that requires that you just out and out lie and ignore the facts.....either way it makes you look like fools........
Itsme Jan 14th 2010 10:51AM
Yeah........except your looking at someone going through the line! The one playing solitare in in the booth! LOOK AGAIN!
Hey Kris!! Jan 14th 2010 2:08PM
thats not the tsa person, but the computer is the tsa's i believe thats what they are talking about and you can see someone's arm behind the wall so yes they were playing solitare while working, and yes this is insane, i sure hope they pay more attention next time.
Jalapeno Jan 14th 2010 8:03AM
I can appreciate the job the TSA does. The amount of pressure must be staggering. I flew out of SLC so often, we were on a first name basis.
What I didn't like, and thought was a bit overboard, was the TSA were openly steeling personal items. This didn't happen at SLC, but other airports. ATL was the worst.
gposner29 Jan 14th 2010 9:56AM
One more time...Each state needs to send it's representatives to Israel to see how the professionals screen potential passengers. The system in the U.S. is to make politically correct hirings of would be screeners who are just happy to have a job and are otherwise lazy, incompetent and apathetic...The hirings must be more focused and deliberate and based on something other than political correctness. The training must parallel that of Israel...no ifs, ands or buts.
FroboseTF Jan 14th 2010 10:13AM
No. It is NOT a TSA employee. The Transportation Safety Agency (TSA) is an agency of the United States. This occurred at Marco Polo Airport in Venice Italy. Italy; for you products of the Public School system, is NOT part of the United States. Read the article before you post for a change.
Harley'sMom Jan 14th 2010 10:15AM
Kaboatman, you're the one who's not very observant. You didn't see the card game on the screen? And as for the rest of you, it looks obviously PhotoShopped to me.
A Jan 14th 2010 10:35AM
What the security guy is most likely doing is checking a passenger's laptop to see if it is a working computer. They ask you to turn those on all the time, as well as camcorders and other electronic devices. The passenger was killing time while waiting by playing solitaire and didn't want to turn the computer off, and handed it to the security officer with the game going on. That's all there is to this.
jany38 Jan 14th 2010 11:38AM
For posters saying that is someone's laptop being screened by security. Note:
that is clearly a 'desktop' NOT a laptop. Also, I agree with another poster's comment regarding 'public school mentality" indicating it is Marco Polo Airport in Venice, therefore it is not TSA. I in no way am defending TSA but fair is fair.
Hannah Jan 14th 2010 11:43AM
Yeah the whole laptop thing could be true.....except for the fact that that is not a laptop....
DOUG Jan 14th 2010 11:46AM
Look again that is not a laptop computer.
MIKE Jan 14th 2010 11:48AM
Government employees, they don't have to pay attention!
mike Jan 14th 2010 12:06PM
Government employees, they don't have to pay attention!
james Jan 14th 2010 12:02PM
i guess they will wake up when another jet explodes then all they can do is say i'm sorry and feel bad about it the people lost will not come back the terroist will get thru it's just a matter of time and then the bad news i don't want to hear
susan Jan 14th 2010 12:21PM
Of course they are not paying attention. They are not going to be at risk on the flight. Here is my idea: every time a TSA inspector catches something strange, or some one on the no fly list and stops them, give that TSA inspector a bonus.
$50 per find would be a great thing and would make them work harder for the good of the people.
Lita Jan 14th 2010 12:49PM
While this looks bad, who's to say that the employee wasn't playing this game and then stopped when his or her duties called them to screen passengers? (The employee isn't even visible in the picture, if you look closely--only passengers standing before the counter who are likely being processed by that employee.) I, for one, never played games on my work computer because I had a computer at home, and if I wanted to play games, that's where I'd do it, so I'm not defending the presence of solitaire on a work computer. But to make this leap that someone in this security situation is not doing his or her job is exactly that--a leap with really no solid evidence to back it up. Let's stop that "the sky is falling" way of reporting and stick to facts.
AL Jan 14th 2010 1:05PM
It's rather apparent that TSA does not get it. Israel has absolutely NO problem PROFILING as should be done in these United States. Of course you have the idiots that DON'T fly and they want to stay so politically correct with their crap they put out. I DO fly and am damn sick of the people at TSA that ought not to have a job. It's just a matter of time before a plane is brought down and then we get to hear the BS apologys, but the people are still dead. We don't enorce the laws in America that was put into place by men that cared about America. We are so busy worrying about race that these people from foreign nations just laugh at America. Start profiling you idiots. Fire people at TSA that does NOT do their jobs and believe me there would be many job openings as they are lazy and don't care, as it is not them that is flying.
JMH Jan 14th 2010 1:21PM
FedEx's Inhumane Treatment!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YnbcCV2KI4