Washington – The acting chief of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was ousted late Monday night after an embarrassing new report found that airport security officers badly failed a new test, missing almost every firearm and explosive investigators tried to sneak by them.
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson announced the move, saying Melvin Carraway had been “reassigned” to another part of the department and his deputy would take over, serving until the Senate can confirm a new chief.
Earlier in the night Mr. Johnson had said he’d just been given a classified briefing on the inspector general’s findings that found a major loophole in security that could allow people to sneak prohibited items by TSA screeners and into what were supposed to be secure areas of airports.
Mr. Johnson said the preliminary findings were classified and said it wasn’t “appropriate or prudent” to talk about them — but ABC News reported that IG investigators managed to sneak contraband material by TSA screeners in 67 of 70 tests.
Multiple checks of systems by the Homeland Security Red Teams found workers routinely failed to locate dummy explosives and weapons in airports across America.
The teams consist of employees acting as passengers with the single goal of sneaking dangerous materials past security checks.
One fake passenger was cleared after a pat-down with a fake bomb taped to his back.
“Upon learning the initial findings of the Office of Inspector General’s report, Secretary Johnson immediately directed TSA to implement a series of actions, several of which are now in place, to address the issues raised in the report.”
Despite the problems, which have occurred before, Homeland Security chiefs maintain America’s airports, and skies are safe.
“We know that the adversary innovates,” former TSA Administrator John Pistole wrote in 2013. “We have to push ourselves to capacity in order to remain one step ahead.” He went on to say as part of that testers “know exactly what our protocols are. They can create and devise and conceal items that not even the best terrorists would be able to do,” Pistole added.
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