Bizarre, Congress, Society

Travelers At O’Hare and Other Airports Face Three Hour Delays While Thousands Miss Flights

We have been discussing the meltdown at airports due to the latest gross negligence by the Transportation Security Administration. At O’Hare, passengers are facing three hour delays with thousands missing flights and even having to rent hotel rooms when unable to make it to their gates in time. What is incredible is that Homeland Security Secretary not only denied that there was any crisis in grinding airports to a standstill but also seemed to blame passengers for failing to yield to the pressure to accept the expedited screening program called PreCheck. Many people object to the program as yielding privacy under coercion from TSA: share personal data or face hours of waiting as punishment. TSA admits that it assumed more passengers would yield to the pressure. They did not. It also admits to failing to properly staff security in a ten percent cut of screeners — a colossal blunder of under-estimating travel numbers. Yet, again, no one appears to be accountable for this massive failure that has left thousands stranded and airlines struggling to reschedule flights, including a separate TSA failure that resulted in the loss of thousands of bags.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson simply told passengers “to be patient” and come three hours early. He added “Our job is to keep the American people safe. We’re not going to compromise aviation security in the face of this.” Really, if the TSA was serious about aviation security, how about fully staffing security gates? The threat to security is to mismanage airports to overload understaffed security gates.

TSA appears to be pointing fingers at Congress and vice versa. There is clearly enough blame to go around, but it is clear that TSA made ridiculous miscalculations and seemed surprised by citizens not yielding to the choice of waiving privacy or waiting in lines. Citizens seem to have the bizarre view that, after hundreds of billions of dollars invested in our airports, they should be able to make their flights without waiting longer in TSA lines than the actual travel time on aircraft. It is curious expectation of competence and minimal levels of service from their government. Maybe we really are to blame.

41 thoughts on “Travelers At O’Hare and Other Airports Face Three Hour Delays While Thousands Miss Flights”

  1. I think a case could be made by the airlines to sue the federal government claiming loss of revenue.

  2. The FACT is that it is CONGRESS who is responsible for this mess. It is the same thing with the USPS. Congress made outlandish requirements about the pension system, and then blame the USPS for the money losing service. They did the same thing when the USPS tried to start their own airline to fly the mail. Congress passed a law ordering the USPS to not do it and instead to keep on using FedEx and the other airlines to carry the mail. Congress and the GOP refuse to fund the services, then blame government for being unable to perform the required services.

    I recall the situation before 9/11 which was very bad with minimum wage employees doing a bad job. At least the TSA has finally decided that air crew members might be trusted enough so that we no longer need to submit to a strip search along with all the other passengers. It is also trying to make it easier to winnow down the field of passengers who should be scanned more closely in the general line. It is thus dumb to cry about the long lines when there are other alternatives readily available to the public. If you want your absolute privacy, then don’t fly or you have no valid objection to being delayed if you refuse to comply with a reasonable request to use a system designed to speed you on your way. It is just as dumb to blame the TSA for the lack of funding or staffing. It is dishonest to put all the blame on the TSA and even worse when some of us use an excuse to make their job harder by claiming absolute right to privacy.

  3. Karen S I fly into Canada fairly frequently and on the drive to the hotel, I usually ask the driver how he or she likes the health care in Canada. Without exception after many many talks, I get nothing but rave reviews. So from my personal observations talking with ordinary folks, I get a pretty good idea of how Canadians like their system. I suggest you try that. I asked one of our pilots who is a conservative politically to do the same thing, and he REFUSED to do it. Facts matter little to ideologues.

  6. Isaac,
    Obama can find the time to make sure transgenders have access to women’s bathrooms in all of our public schools, but somehow he completely lacks any power whatsoever to affect this most current debacle of the TSA.

  7. It’s all Obama’s fault. Obama is secretly the head of TSA and formulating plans to make everyones’ lives more miserable. Actually, he is tired of hearing the same old whines that connect him to any and every conceivable problem with the world, so he decided to divert attention from his part in all these other plots and screw up airports. Yup, Yup, Yup.

  8. I hope this catches on:

    SleepBus runs overnight between SF and LA for $48

    “A new type of bus service is starting up to offer travelers a new way to get between two of California’s largest cities. It’s called the SleepBus, but the company doesn’t actually use a bus; it’s a Volvo truck with individual sleep pods on board.

    Each pod has an electric socket (so you can power and charge your devices while under way) and there’s on-board wifi, desks should you prefer to sit up and work, coffee and tea, and room for three bags and even a bicycle in the luggage compartment. The whole trim takes about seven hours”

  9. @Karen S:

    Sorry, but blaming it on “government union employees” isn’t going to cut it. The “government union employees” are the low-level flunkies who stand there and screen the passengers and their bags. The people who actually make decisions about staffing and procedure and policy are executives and managers who are not unionized. The head of TSA is a political appointee. It’s easy to blame it on the little guy (or gal) who is visible to the public, but those folks don’t run the agency or have any decision-making authority.

  10. TSA is useless. The last time I flew a guy put his hands inside my waistband and felt around like I was fresh from Gaza wearing a heavy jacket on a hot day. He touched my pubic area, too the sicko, right in front of everbody. They’re despicable but the question is who set this farce up and why.

  13. All of this–every single second of this—is the Liberals fault! Everything. Liberals say we can’t racially profile. This is the cause! Liberals don’t see this–and they don’t care. The Sacred Cow is “racially profile”; for some reason that is a mortal sin—so millions of WASP Americans are held hostage to militant Islam because we stupid idiotic Americans who follow the LIberals and the Marxists and say we can’t racially profile. It is pure Gnosticism that we can’t pay attention to particularity–to race.

    This world would be a happier and safer place if we could all racially profile. But then our country is being run and educated by Marxists, the Gnostic theory par excellence–so we live in hell.

  15. Precheck (for domestic) and global entry (for customs) will not prevent lines!! Biggest waste of money ever. You will still wait in lines with everyone else. Most of the staff fail to note you have been “prechecked” and you will take off shoes, jacket, etc. just like everyone else. The egos of security staff will not listen if you politely point out that you have precheck. In fact, you just bought yourself an extra hassle for trying to notify them that you have it…

  16. In a similar vein, wait times to see a government healthcare doctor in Canada range from 13 to over 40 weeks among the provinces.

    See the similarities?

  17. “Yet, again, no one appears to be accountable for this massive failure that has left thousands stranded and airlines struggling to reschedule flights, including a separate TSA failure that resulted in the loss of thousands of bags.”

    Right. Because it’s government union employees. This is the whole complaint about government employees vs private sector. A non-monopoly private sector HAS to respond to consumer pressure or go our of business. Its customers will simply shop elsewhere. Government employees wasting taxpayer money and doing a bad job just blow off complaints. And what can consumers do? Absolutely nothing.

    Inexplicably, people read these stories about inefficient, unaccountable government employees, but they still want to layer a government bureaucracy between us and our health care. It’s a disconnect.

  18. Another massive failure in this administration with no accountability.

  19. Liberals ignore these situations; their answer is more government (and more money).

  20. Up until a few years ago I had a top secret clearance. I still hold a secret. Polygraph, interviews, everything.

    TSA will never get my money or effort for precheck. Tell them to give precheck to the millions that have regular background investigations by the same Federal government and see if it helps the lines at all.

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