You don't have to get a hip replacement to sneak titanium onto an airplane, according to the Post. A reporter carrying an eight-inch-long piece of the nonferrous metal was able to pass through security twice at Kennedy Airport without setting off metal detectors.
The journalist brought a chain made out of titanium — which the tabloid notes is "used in knives, brass knuckles and even guns" — through security at Terminal 7 once in her pocket and once around her wrist. According to security experts, the fact that the alarms didn't go off reveals another major breach in anti-terrorism measures at airports. "What if you have somebody who can forge a two-shot homemade gun out of titanium and he assembles the pieces while in the bathroom of the plane?" asked former FBI official Clint Van Zandt.
Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Ann Davis declined to discuss "the detection capabilities of our screening equipment" and said the machines are checked daily. Despite the Post stunt, she said it's "speculative to suggest that someone could walk onto a plane with a titanium blade." Speculative or not, it's an interesting article, but what's going to happen when reporters for Sada al-Malahim — the magazine released by an Al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen — try the write a follow-up?
