You strip search him, find nothing, let him go, and then he takes command of the plane and can crash it anywhere, any time. How obvious is this??
The link you posted below, to the "FedEx Express Flight 705" incident is completely irrelevant since Mr. Calloway was not in charge of steering that plane. Had he been, he would not have tried to kill the crew.
To be fair, the TSA doesn't know that the guy is a pilot - only that he has the uniform and some sort of identification that says he is - both of which could be faked.
Unfortunately nothing is likely to change until it's not isolated incidents of people refusing to go through the full body scanners but rather 10% or more of the flying public. --I'm estimating, of course, but can you imagine the backlogs if just 10% of passengers refused every day and forced the TSA to spend time frisking them?
Unfortunate and ironic from a safety POV since driving is much more dangerous than flying on commercial flights.
If it's not the super trained government appointed guardians of our safety - the clerk at the departure gate ?
Surely there should also be a TSA agent standing behind each pilot throughout the flight if they can't be sure of the pilots identity?
The 'Delta connection' flight you are on is sub-contracted out to a 2 man outfit with a single regional jet.
Pay and conditions are so poor that staff turnover is huge and the number of staff is reduced so that people barely have time to glance at the person.
It's one of the hidden costs of replacing the company security guard with the cheap outside agency.
When you're sitting in the driver's seat, who cares if you have any weapon you want? Ergo, anything that can get you in the driver's seat should be good enough to get you past security, faked or not.
And EgyptAir co-pilot actually tried to overcome captain and recover till the end.
But I think those cases neither validate nor invalidate the need to screen the pilots?
Certainly they validate the case to have co-pilots.