A woman recently had a gun on her and went through security checkpoints at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport without being caught. The woman had traveled to Japan from Atlanta and returned on the same day with the firearm. The occurrence showed that proper TSA standard screening was not carried out. Hence, the Japan Transportation Ministry has issued a warning to Delta Airlines as well as the US’ Transportation Security Administration (TSA). The Japanese ministry urged TSA to take necessary precautions in order to avoid a reoccurrence of such in the future.
According to the woman claimed she forgot that the gun was in her bag. In its report, it explained, “TSA has determined standard procedures were not followed and a passenger did, in fact, pass through a standard screening TSA checkpoint with a firearm at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on the morning of January 3.”
The breach happened during the government shutdown. Although TSA has clarified that it has nothing to do with it.
“The perception that this might have occurred as a result of the partial government shutdown would be false. The national unscheduled absence rate of TSA staff on Thursday, January 3, 2019, was 4.8% compared to 6.3% last year, Thursday, January 4, 2018. So in fact, the national call-out rate was higher a year ago than this year on that date,” it emphasized.
While reacting to the incident, Michael Bilello, TSA’s assistant administrator for public affairs wrote, “Security standards will NOT and have NOT been compromised” on Twitter.
In a bid to compensate workers for the hardship caused by the government shutdown, TSA assured its staff that staff who were on duty the day after the breach would get a day’s pay and there’ll be $500 bonus for those who worked during the holidays.
In his explanation as to why the organization plans to give bonuses, TSA’s administrator said, “while I realize this is not what you are owed for your hard work and what you deserve, I hope these actions alleviate some of the financial hardship many of you are facing.”
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