Flying With Fish The Blog for Those Who Fly & Those Who Want to Fly Smarter

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is an easy target for the public, pundits and “TSA Nabs Suspected Al Queda Terrorist At Chicago Airport, A toddler in a wheelchair” is an easy headline for blogs and news outlets … especially when relevant facts are left out.   Yesterday a video uploaded by Matt Dubiel, of Naperville, [...]

Last week President Barack Obama proposed a US$317,000,000 increase in the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) budget, to strengthen aviation security in the United States. While President Obama’s proposal to raise aviation taxes in the coming year to find the budget increase is likely to be defeated by both Democrats and Republicans in The House, the [...]

In the spring of 2004, following the commuter rail bombings in Madrid, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) began devising a plan to “protect the Nation’s transportation systems and ensure freedom of movement for people and commerce,” for the railroads and mass transit systems in the United States.  The result of the TSA’s efforts to increase [...]

Since the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) implemented its  ‘enhanced pat down’ screening procedures in late 2010 the legality of the agency’s authority to execute enhanced pat downs has been consistently called into question.   While the TSA has the legal authority to carry out administrative searches without probable cause, as I wrote about in November [...]

This month the topics of aviation security concerns are once again coming to the forefront of the news. Having recently written about the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) warning of surgically implanted bombs 18 months after the threat was discovered, and Libya possessing an estimated 250 tons of non-detectable Semtex, I had the opportunity to discuss [...]

Earlier today the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) issued a security memo to security officials and Transportation Security Officers (TSO) alerting them to the potential terrorist threat of humans traveling with surgically implanted explosives inside their bodies.   The TSA’s primary focus is on passengers traveling to the United States from foreign countries and is [...]

Moscow’s Domodedovo International Airport (DME), 26 miles southeast of Moscow, was torn apart by a bomb blast earlier today at 4:37pm MSK, in the international arrivals lounge. The explosion is believed to be set off by at least one suicide bomber, although police believe the blast area is potentially from more than one bomb. The [...]

Tom Quinn, the former head of the Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS) had once stated that “We’ve gotten it right,” in regard to how the Federal Air Marshal Service is being operated, however a number of Air Marshals do not believe it is being done right, from multiple points of view. For many the job [...]

The U.S. Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS) has been in the news more often than they would like recently … and as I have been researching aspects of the Federal Air Marshals recently on an unrelated topic … this is probably an ideal time to write a multi-part series on these Federal Agents in the [...]

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has battled many public relations gaffs as the young agency finds its feet overseeing transportation security in the United States. The agency promotes its career opportunities on its careers website as “From law enforcement to technology and from security operations to management, we are looking for dedicated people with the [...]