They actually didn’t have pre-check.
The Transportation Security Administration saw an alarming variety of passengers covertly bypassing airport security last 12 months, the Washington Post reported.
“It’s a bigger number than we realized,” TSA spokesperson R. Carter Langston told the outlet, adding that there have been no less than 300 cases since March 2023.
The TSA is probing the weak security checkpoints allowing unscreened people to slide through, which have been labeled a “trend.”
One of the popular ways in which is going on — greater than 200 were seen doing so — is people cutting through exit lanes typically marked with “no re-entry” signage.
Meanwhile, an extra 80 slipped past the travel document checker (TDC) podium used to review flyers’ identification and credentials. That’s in comparison with 72 in 2022 and 29 in 2019.
Still, those that skipped the document station did undergo body screenings.
Others have been caught red-handed attempting to skip the road, Langston said, noting that “a variety of people lose their patience.”
Still, he also claimed that the “overwhelming majority don’t appear to have evil intent” in that the majority cases seem accidental.
Latest Jersey TSA Security Director Thomas Carter doubled down, adding that many are either not considering clearly or forgot a few of their belongings.
“Persistently it’s left-behind property; people get very upset, it’s almost like they lose their minds. ‘I even have to get my cellphone. I even have to get my laptop,’” said Carter, who has seen an uptick of security lapses at Newark Liberty International Airport.
Nonetheless, some try to sneak on a flight for which they don’t have a ticket, as was the case for a Nashville woman in February.
Carter noted that a transparent post-pandemic “change in behavior” in passengers might be an element.
At Newark Airport, a prospective solution — closing off areas with glass or plastic barriers moderately than standard stanchions with retractable nylon “belts” — has been implemented to narrow security risks.
Carter said the brand new barriers have “been very effective in helping us prevent any access control events or attempted breach past the TDC.”