Today, a handful of news outlets reported a strange story of a man and the big fish that got away. Unfortunately, this fish got away after having been caught, processed, put on ice, carefully wrapped, put in a cooler, secured with rope, and passed through airport security. Here it is in all it’s glory, coverage from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle Times, and the Associated Press. Twice.
You might be tempted to write this off — as Continental Airlines did — as “Big deal. Luggage sometimes doesn’t make it to it’s destination, and sometimes luggage doesn’t contain what people thought it did when they left for the airport.” But it is a big deal. People don’t misplace 40 pounds of fish, they don’t leave it in their hotel rooms. And the cooler didn’t vanish, just it’s contents. The fisherman is right when he says this is a security problem.
If 40 pounds of fish can vanish from a cooler without somebody saying so much as “Hey, Buddy, where’d you get the fish?” then what is there to stop 40 pounds of [insert scary biological, chemical, or radioactive agent of choice here] from showing up in a cooler? Seriously. Most people can’t put 40 pounds of fish in their pocket and act like nothing’s wrong. Somebody had to notice this, and that someboedy chose to say nothing. We live in an era when scribbling possible dialog for your novel in the margin of your crossword can get you a stern talking to from the not-so-friendly folks at the TSA, and yet beyond the security line, dozens of pounds of who-knows-what moves in and out, unmonitored.
It is past time to consider security beyond the security checkpoint. Don’t make me spell it out.