TSA tightens security after failing undercover tests tests

Tighter procedures at airports across the country that have been implemented because of TSA’s shocking security failures will lead to increased travel times over the holidays. 

On Wednesday, Administrator David Pekoske would not be drawn on how long the delays would likely last. 

They are the result of an external audit, the results of which were released in a classified report in September, which found that agents failed around 80 percent of undercover tests. 

They inadvertently let through fake explosives, firearms and other banned items. 

The terrifying figure is an improvement on the previous year when undercover agents were able to sneak dangerous items through security in 95 percent of the tests.

Large queues ahead of the security checkpoint at Ronald Reagan Airport in Virginia on Wednesday as TSA agents put in place tighter security procedures 

The new procedures do not change what passengers can bring with them but rather how agents look through their belongings.  

Details are scarce due to the security restrictions in place by Pekoske told Politico they would include one procedure which will focus on passengers’ electronics device. 

In July, TSA announced that anything larger than a cell phone would have to be placed in its own plastic bin and without anything sitting on top of it.  

‘The procedure is new. It’s new to passengers. It’s somewhat new to our screeners,’ he said. 

On Wednesday, there were already signs of the added waiting times as queues formed in airports across the country.

The pattern mimicked the travel chaos of summer 2016 when passengers were forced to wait for hours in long lines as the agents performed scrupulous checks. 

The increase then was as a result of another damning investigation. 

The added checks do not affect what passengers can bring with them on planes but change how agents go through their luggage before they board. Above, lines beginning to form at Ronald Reagan Airport on Wednesday afternoon as the Thanksgiving travel built up 

The added checks do not affect what passengers can bring with them on planes but change how agents go through their luggage before they board. Above, lines beginning to form at Ronald Reagan Airport on Wednesday afternoon as the Thanksgiving travel built up 

The audit in 2016 found that TSA agents failed an astonishing 80 per cent of undercover tests (above, an agent at Ronald Reagan Airport on Thursday) 

The audit in 2016 found that TSA agents failed an astonishing 80 per cent of undercover tests (above, an agent at Ronald Reagan Airport on Thursday) 

A TSA agent at New York's LaGuardia Airport screens a passenger's bag before allowing them through on Wednesday afternoon 

A TSA agent at New York’s LaGuardia Airport screens a passenger’s bag before allowing them through on Wednesday afternoon 

TSA chiefs say agents say they are stretched with limited resources and that the problem lies in the equally weighted pressure to both perform rigorous enough cheeks and keep lines of people moving fast enough. 

‘There was a lot of pressure, we thought, on the checkpoint agents to keep people moving. 

‘We also found that we didn’t have as consistent and coordinated of a training system as I would have liked to have seen,’ Pekoske said of the association’s practices before the new, tighter checks. 

The damning investigation results worried lawmakers when they became known earlier this year. 

House Homeland Security Chairman Mike McCaul (R-Texas) was among them. 

‘America’s enemies only have to be right once, but we have to be right 100 percent of the time,’ he said at a Nov. 8 hearing.

In July, TSA announced it was adding security checks across the country.

TSA is also planning to add new, more advanced scanners to airports across America. 

They are currently being trialed at some airports but wide-scale trials will begin next year. 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk