“Bomb” Bag Shipped, Then Blown Up

It was not the TSA’s finest hour but at least they followed their own rules — according to the TSA. A woman was barred from a Mesa Airlines flight from Phoenix to San Diego on Thursday after she allegedly told a screener that the TSA “couldn’t find a bomb [in her bag] if there was one.” While the woman was detained, the bag was put on the flight, where it traveled uneventfully to San Diego — uneventfully, that is, until arrival. At Lindbergh field, the plane was evacuated, the passengers and crew were delayed for debriefing and the (previously cleared) luggage was extricated from the aircraft and blown up (not of its own accord). It was all by the book, according to the TSA’s Nico Melendez. “If a bag is cleared by TSA, is it OK, under current regulations, to fly without the passenger on the plane.” “… All procedures were followed in this case,” he said in an e-mail to the Arizona Republic. The passenger, a New Jersey psychiatrist, was questioned (and later released, taking a later flight) as the bag made its way to San Diego, where the plane taxied to an isolated area of the airport and passengers were ordered off without their coats and carry-ons while authorities found Koshnu’s luggage and blew it up. … How was your day?