TSA to train security officers to recognize MacBook Air
By Jonathan Schlaffer
You may remember a couple days back of a gentlemen who wrote about being detained up by TSA officers at the airport because of the unusual configuration of the MacBook Air. This information has reached higher-up TSA officials and they are now working to ensure that more of their employees are familiar with the MacBook Air’s configuration.
When the MacBook Air went through the X-Ray scanner, security officers were unable to identify a hard drive due to it being the SSD (solid state drive) model; additionally the laptop had no ports which called it into question.
The man was eventually allowed through security after turning the laptop on and running some programs but it was too late for him to catch his scheduled flight.
According to the official TSA blog,
“They [transportation security officers] know what laptops are supposed to look like. Along comes the new MacBook Air. The thing is as thin as a potato chip, and looks completely different than any other laptop the TSOs have ever seen. They are seldom seen at TSA checkpoints due to their newness and the fact that they can be hard to find sometimes.”
Apple has been contacted by the TSA to see if it will provide a MacBook Air to be scanned through a X-Ray machine which will provide a sample image for authorities to review. If they approve then the sample will be provided to the TSA for training and re-training of current employees.
It should be noted that the TSA officers in this case were doing what they were trained to do. Although, I fault them for not being regular window shoppers at the Apple Store.
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March 13th, 2008
Is it just me, or does this shake anyone else’s confidence in the TSA’s abilities to keep airports safe? They don’t know what a MacBook Air is?
Also, SSDs have been around for a couple years now…they’re just mainstream. Dell has had them in their laptops before the MacBook Air came out.
March 13th, 2008
Sure am glad they federalized it. I feel much safer now.
March 19th, 2008
I guess the TSA folks don’t get much TV time either. I have seen the “Air” commercial about a hundred time in the past six weeks, and I don’t watch very much TV.
March 19th, 2008
I guess the TSA folks don’t get much TV time either. I have seen the “Air” commercial about a hundred times in the past six weeks, and I don’t watch very much TV.