TSA Snafu Damages Nine Planes at O'Hare Field

[Pilotguy]

Pilots Furious with Misstep

By JOSEPH RHEE, BRIAN ROSS, and ERIC LONGABARDI
August 19, 2008

"Nine American Eagle airplanes were grounded Tuesday after a TSA inspector, conducting an overnight security check, used sensitive instrument probes to climb onto the parked aircraft at Chicago's O'Hare Airport, aviation sources tell ABCNews.com.

A TSA official confirmed the incident.

At least forty regional commuter flights were delayed throughout the day, according to American Airlines. "We think it's an unfortunate situation," American airlines spokesperson Mary Frances told ABCNews.com.

The TSA agent, as part of spot inspection of aircraft security, climbed onto the parked aircraft using control sensors mounted on the fuselage as handholds, according to a TSA official in Chicago, Elio Montenegro."

There's more...
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5613502&page=1

Amazing. There is not one federal agency in this administration that is not totally incompetent.

[Turbineguy]

1. Government Broken

Mission Accomplished.

[Hekate]

2. Oh God. My head hurts.

<face palm>

[DinahMoeHum]

3. TSA means Tough Shit, Assholes.

those people could fuck up a wet dream.

:evilfrown:

[nc4bo]

4. fubar.

Is a lifetime enough time to clean up the mess I wonder?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. Oh, jeez...

What a dumbass. The TSA sucks donkey balls in so many different ways, and now they have some ignorant knucklehead climbing all over the airplanes and busting stuff up. :banghead:

That agency needs to go away. We like to gripe about the FAA, but they look like freakin' Einsteins next to the TSA.

[XOKCowboy]

6. When I was in training long ago for ramp clearance

to unload documents from planes I had to go through a rigorous training regime about what NOT to do around an airplane. It's been 30 yrs ago but even now I know you don't just climb on airplanes and use the sensor for a ladder.

Fuggin' Idiots.

[ComplimentarySwine]

7. I don't think I've ever been to formal training like that

but really, how hard is it to know not to grab random stuff on the side of the plane and use it to support your body weight?

[ComplimentarySwine]

8. For those wondering about the probes

the linked article said that the sensor is referred to as a TAT probe. I didn't really know what this is, but a quick Google search turned up the following:

http://www.b737.org.uk/flightinsts.htm <-- about halfway down the page
http://www.b737.org.uk/probes.htm

Does that look like anything that a normal person would consider climbing on?

[trof]

13. TAT = Total Air Temperature

This is a good (but kinda techie) explanation:
Total air temperature is a term used generally in aviation. In other applications it is called stagnation temperature. Total air temperature is measured by a specially designed temperature probe mounted on the surface of the aircraft. The probe is designed to bring the air to rest relative to the aircraft. As the air is brought to rest kinetic energy is converted to internal energy. The air is compressed and experiences an adiabatic increase in temperature. Therefore total air temperature is higher than the static (or ambient) air temperature.

Total air temperature is an essential input to an air data computer in order to enable computation of static air temperature and hence true airspeed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_air_temperature

[Hassin Bin Sober]

14. It's amazing that they would let these flunkies anywhere near the aircraft un-escorted.

Passenger jets have been brought down by less. A plane was once lost because a plane washer left duct tape on one of the static ports (part of the same system) of a jet aircraft.

This pilot's remarks from the comments section speaks to the danger.

The scary part about all of this is that in addition to the TAT probe on the aircraft I fly (CRJ-100/200's), there are several other probes in the same vicinity of the aircraft including the AOA or Angle of Attack probe. If it were even slightly bent and missed on a preflight inspection, erroneous information could be supplied to the aircraft's computers. The real concern here lies with false 'stall' warnings, (where the AOA indicator thinks the aircraft's pitch attitude in reference to the relative wind is above the 'critical angle of attack'). In this situation the wings of the aircraft would not be producing enough lift to keep it flying in the air, now in this example, with a bent AOA probe, it would be a false indication. However, the pilots would not know about it until the wheels leave the pavement on takeoff and the 'stick shaker' would go off, indicating that the aircraft is in a stall situation. Shortly after, depending on what information the computer is given by the bent AOA indicator, the 'stick pusher' could be activated, which is an automatic built in defense system to break an aircraft from a stall situation, it would force the control yoke forward violently to decrease the angle of attack, but doing so that low to the ground could create disaster. The actions taken by these TSA agents are appalling and extremely negligent, they may have out best interests in mind, however, this is clearly a blatant overstepping of boundaries. It is my professional opinion as an airline pilot that many lives may have been saved by the careful preflight inspections by the pilots of these aircraft in the identification of bent flight information system probes.
Posted by:
CL65FO 12:54 AMMark As Violation

[baldguy]

16. His daddy pro'ly made a big contribution to the local GOP.

Ol' Hollis is a little brain-addled an' slow in th' head, buy he's a good boy. Let's keep him out of trouble. Make him an aircraft inspector for the TSA.

[backscatter712]

9. Those sensor probes in particular are very sensitive.

My dad was in the Air Force, and related stories about being trained not to touch the probes on an aircraft, and people getting yelled at and subjected to humorously humiliating punishments if they were dumb enough to touch the probes. Particularly if they damaged them or threw off their calibration.

[opihimoimoi]

10. Cronies Cronies Cronies....this is our GOP Dudes and their Peters/Cronies at work

:puke:

[Monk06]

11. TSA, dumber than mall dicks. Hey bud it's an aircraft not a set of monkey bars.

[WritersBlock]

12. This infurates me. Nobody except the qualified flight or maintenance crew should even be near

an unattended ramped aircraft. Ramp security does not involve having an untrained person climbing all over an aircraft and damaging it. That is, to varying degrees, vandalism, interference with an air carrier, criminal negligence, and destruction of property.

Many kudos to the *trained* crew member(s) who discovered this travesty before one of those planes took off with a load of passengers.

And what really pisses me off is that I'm sure this is far from an isolated incident.

TSA, far from increasing safety of air travel, is putting air travelers in grave danger with dumbshit actions such as this.

[City Lights]

15. TSA is keeping Uhmurica safe!

:scared:

What a flipping :dunce:. "Unfortunate" isn't the word that I would have used to describe the situation. :mad:

[baldguy]

17. Story & comment from Aero-News.net

http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?ContentBlockID=340a79d6-839a-470d-b662-944325cea23d#d

The TSA has NO BUSINESS putting untrained personnel in a position to damage aircraft. Their bizarre games, in the name of security, do NOTHING to enhance security and do much to inhibit safety. Aviation personnel -- pilots, A&P's, ground personnel -- are all either licensed or supervised by licensed personnel and this kind of tampering, had it been accomplished by anyone else, would have subjected that person to criminal charges.

In this case, ANN strongly recommends and encourages the criminal prosecution of this so-called inspector and his immediate supervisors... it is a matter of time before one of these morons does something stupid and gets someone killed... and with the way these incidents are occurring, we believe it is a virtual certainty that a TSA "Inpector" will hurt or kill someone in such a manner. No kidding.

A few other notes.. ANN spoke directly to the TSA PAO in this story, Elio Montenegro... a man who desperately needs to get his stories straight. When ANN talked to him early Tuesday evening, Montenegro first stated that no aircraft were tampered with, and thereafter attempted to minimize the issue by stating that a TSA Inspector "may have touched" the aircraft... which American Eagle "sorta" objected to. He claimed that there was no attempt to enter the aircraft, and when he was asked if TSA was, in fact, authorized to attempt such an entry -- out of the sight/knowledge/supervision of American Eagle personnel -- he said that he thought that I had asked a good question, did not know the answer, and promised to get back to me... in direct conflict with other reported statements. TSA can not keep their stories straight... and lying to the media... especially that part of the media that actually knows a thing or two about airplanes, was just plain foolish... if not a deliberate attempt to mislead.

Mind you, this is the same agency that now wants to step up supervision and surveillance of the GA world. Would you trust these kind of folks around your airplane?

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