I'm not sure how you reached the conclusion above (bolded portion). The TSA has been known to search checked bags and then fail to replace items following the search. There have been news reports of travelers who have had someone else's items placed in their checked bag, along with the "we searched your bag" note from the TSA. I'm not saying that the TSA lost the urn, only that we have no evidence from the linked story to exclude the TSA from blame. Could have been a screener's mistake or it could have been US. We'll probably never know.
I reached that conclusion based on the following:
The bag in question would have been in the airline's possession for 99% of the time from check-in to claim. If we are to assume that each time that bag was handled was an opportunity for the urn to disappear, and consider that for the one screener as many as 6-7 airline employees also handled that bag, then there's a greater chance that the airline lost it. This is especially true because while the screeners are on camera, employees have more opportunity to be with the bag unobserved, if theft was the motive. It's worth mentioning that in the handling process bags do sometimes open, usually only partly, but it doesn't take much for things to fall out depending on how it's packed. My least compelling reason for thinking it was US is because the news story says so, in the headline.
Rge TSA is a SCAR upon Liberty and on the United States and is absolutely useless. Face it, Bin Laden won. 11 year after 9/11 and we're still afraid of the Bogeyman.
We're less free and less safe which were his goals. Doesn't matter the specific incident as in a free society an abomination like TSA shouldn't even exist.
I disagree. I wouldn't characterize it as a scar, more like an open wound. Bin Laden probably cared little about the relative freedom of American individuals, it wasn't a big part of his strategy, and you could say he wanted the U.S. less "safe" by going to war with it I suppose, but his
real aims were far more practical. Bin Laden didn't care about our ideals of liberty any more than he cared about Soviets' ideals of communism.
Before 9/11, free societies didn't worry about widebody airliners flying into skyscrapers. The reality exists that there are people that for whatever motive are willing to do whatever it takes to bring down an airliner. If screening is an apparent necessity, what difference does it make if the TSA is grazing your genitals during an enhanced pat down or paying someone else to?
In August 2002 a firearm slipped through the checkpoint and on to an aircraft in ATL. The screener that allowed this to happen was fired.
Last week a firearm slipped through the checkpoint and on to an aircraft in DFW. The TSA stated
"No review of procedures was needed and that standard operating procedures were followed."
We've "Federalized", so I guess we have to wait another ten years for the "Professionalize" part to kick in.
The TSA in 2010 screened an average of
1.73 million people per day in the US. In 2011 the TSA confiscated
more than 1200 guns. It would be ideal to have an entirely foolproof system, but there's no such thing. We were lucky that in neither case did the flights end up taking off. Let's check the hull penetration by firearms tally:
US Airways: 1
TSA: 0
Pax: 0
In a FREE society, there would be no TSA it would be far easier to establish responsibility.
How so?
What we do know is that there are numerous claims against the TSA and Airlines over misplaced stuff.
There are also several contractors for both which have close contact to bags. In 2010 a guy was busted who'd ripped more than
$100,000 of 60 people and he worked for a conveyor maintenance company (though that article incorrectly refers to him as a baggage handler).
