Airport security has always been a headache, especially after 9/11. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) advices to arrive at the airport a few hours prior flights, ensuring sufficient time at hand to pass through security checkpoints.

The process of removing shoes, jackets, metals as well as removing laptops and the quart-sized bag of liquids may be a hassle but is essential to everyone’s safety. With thousands of passengers passing through checkpoint, sometimes people’s experiences are not the best. However, some of the cases below to hit media are far from a “bad day.” These cases bring light in whether U.S. flight security too much or not enough.

On June 24, Olajide Noibi got on the Virgin America Flight 415 at JFK Airport with no ID and an expired boarding pass that did not belong to him. Even though he was caught on the flight, he was able to walk off the plane and spend several days in the Los Angeles area until Wednesday, June 29, when Noibi tried to board a Delta flight for Atlanta, again with an expired boarding pass in another name and no valid ID.

After searching his bag, authorities found about ten other expired boarding passes, none of which were in his name. Olajide was taken into custody at LAX on June 29 and was charged with being a stowaway. He will be fined and could even face jail time. He had gotten through security at JFK with a University of Michigan student ID and a police report saying his passport was stolen. He was even subjected to screening at checkpoint, and yet he still managed to board.

This incident is another in a string of TSA mishaps with the pat-down techniques and full body scans. TSA had strengthened security after 9/11, in hopes to prevent future terrorist attacks. Since 2001, there have been many cases where the agency has been at fault for their security measures. Recently, TSA’s definition of the types of people targeted for pat-downs have gotten out of hand.

Last month TSA’s actions against one passenger raised questions as to how far this agency can go before they are stopped. A few agents stopped a 95-year-old woman, wheelchair-bound with final-stage Leukemia and forced her to take off her adult diaper for pat-down purposes. Jean Weber, daughter of the woman, described the incident.

“My mother was first pulled aside into a glass-partitioned area and patted down. Then she was taken to another room to protect her privacy during a more extensive search,” Weber said. “Security personnel came out and told me that they would need for her mother to remove her Depends diaper because it was impeding their search.”

When asked to comment, TSA spokespersons simply said “the procedures are the same for everyone to ensure national security.”

If there is a record for “youngest child to get a pat down,” then this child wins. According to Kansas City Star, a picture was tweeted by Rev. Jacob Jester of Independence, Mo of an eight-month old baby getting a pat down.

“An 8-month-old doesn’t pose a threat to an airplane or national security. I am grateful for TSA’s willingness and desire to protect, but I believe in this instance that was extreme,” Jester said.

Though these cases show that TSA security precautions are a bit extreme, if not for these measures in the first place, then our nation’s safety may be at risk.

According to TSA’s official website, the primary goal is to treat all passengers with courtesy, dignity, and respect during the security screening processes. In order to do so, security officers are trained in the proper treatment of passengers and their belongings and are required to search all belongings.

This method includes walking through a metal detector and a possible pat-down or full body scan. All of these procedures are in place to ensure the safety of passengers, pilots, and anyone else who travels on airplanes.

Is the flight security too much or too little? Are the incidences previously mentioned a reason to relook the security procedures? Clearly, no one wants a repeat of 9/11 or any other future potential terrorist attacks. Yet, it seems that whichever method this nation uses to protect the citizens’ safety, it will be taken into question.

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We are all familiar with the white lines that can be seen criss-crossing the sky on most clear days.  Air traffic has long left behind their white mark.  Conventional wisdom is that condensed and frozen airplane exhaust account for the trails, known as contrails.  But, many people believe that some of the trails are not typical airplane exhaust but something more sinister known as chemtrails.  And even if you dismiss the chemtrail argument, there has been much more lines in the sky since the 1970’s.  And that isn’t good news either.

The chemtrail conspiracy theory purports that some trails that are left by aircraft are actually chemical or biological agents deliberately sprayed at high altitudes for an unknown purpose by the government.  The existence of chemtrails has repeatedly been denied by government agencies and scientists around the world who maintain the trails are just contrails.  The United States Air Force insists that the theory is a hoax which “has been investigated and refuted by many established and accredited universities, scientific organizations, and major media publications”.

Supporters of chemtrail theory have different ideas about why the chemicals are being sprayed.  Some speculate that the purpose of the chemical release may be for solar radiation management, population control, weather control, or biological warfare/chemical warfare and claim that these trails are causing respiratory illnesses and other health problems.  Proponents of the chemtrail theory say that chemtrails can be distinguished from contrails by their long duration, asserting that the chemtrails are those trails left by aircraft that persist for as much as a half day or transform into cirrus-like clouds.  According to the U.S. Air force, contrails are the result of normal emissions of water vapor from piston engines and jet engines at high altitudes in which the water vapor condenses into a visible cloud. The rate at which contrails disperse depends on weather conditions and altitude.  In very humid conditions, the contrail may last a while.  If the air is dry, the contrail will scatter quickly.

In 2001, U.S. Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) introduced a measure that would have permanently prohibited the basing of weapons in space, and he listed chemtrails as one of a number of exotic weapons that would be banned.  The bill died in committee and no further mention of chemtrails appeared in Kucinich’s subsequent attempts to enact a Space Preservation Act.

Scientists believe that contrails have increased since the 1970s, primarily because of a change in the atmospheric pressure pattern known as the Arctic Oscillation. It influences weather in northern, middle and high latitudes.  Climatologists suggest that the change may be related to global warming.

Whether the white lines of cloud are chemtrails or contrails, the increasing number is something to be worried about.  If our own government doesn’t kill us, then our own pollution will.

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