About That Increased Airport Security...

Another beautiful photo from Seattlest Flickr contributor sea kay

Seattlest, like most folks, can't even get on a plane with the supposedly approved 3oz clear bottles of liquid. But Greg Alderete, a plain-clothed retired lieutenant colonel, was able to drive on to a Sea-Tac runway unnoticed and unchecked. How does that make any sense at all?!?

On May 8th, Alderete went to Sea-Tac airport to pick up a two-star general flying in from Portland, Oregon. Like many private business and government flights, Alderete's guest was arriving at Sea-Tac's corporate jet tarmac. Without showing any identification and without being in a marked-vehicle or military uniform, Alderete was waved through the gate by Army personnel. Alderete was shocked by the lax security, but even more shocked to see just where he was casually waved through to.

"We were sitting there, the engine idling, nobody around, when all of a sudden I realized: We're out on the goddamn runway. We're in a gassed-up, seven-passenger van, and no one really knows who we are. We have an unobstructed path to the main runways, the commercial gates, the whole place."

Alderete was allowed to remain on the runway for 33 minutes without ever being questioned by staff or security personnel. Reasonably alarmed by this all, Alderete reported the incident. Both the Transportation Security Agency and the Port of Seattle conducted investigations into Alderete's claims. Both agencies confirm Alderete's version of the story and both declared that airport security procedures were followed that day. Perry Cooper, Sea-Tac's spokesperson went as far as saying, "We have never had a security lapse in that part of the airport."

And to that we say--really? If Joe Blow in an unmarked van can drive on to a tarmac at a major airport without any form of identification and that is considered to be up-to-par for security standards, we're pretty sure the entire operation is a lapse of security. Personally, we’d rather you focus on requiring identification from people trying to drive on the runway, rather than, say, x-raying our shoes and confiscating our hair gel. That would actually make us feel a lot safer, thanks.