The MacBook Air and Lessons about Life
Friday, March 21st, 2008Isn’t it odd how our brains notice things? For example, I seem to have a habit of looking at the clock at exactly 11:34, which when turned upside-down spells out “hell”. Now do I really have that habit, or do I just happen to notice those times because 11:34 has a (somewhat immature and meaningless) significance?
Recently the MacBook Air computer has caused some issues on airport security: http://www.michaelnygard.c
To make a long story short, some ppor traveller missed his flight because the TSA didn’t know that the MacBook Air was a real laptop.
Recently the TSA gave their explanation for the whole issue in a blog post: http://www.tsa.gov/blog/20
Basically what happened was that this traveller was simply trying to bring his laptop through security. Quite simple… not a problem. Certainly not intended as an attempt to bring down a plane.
To the TSA agent, however, this was a unknown traveller bringing some odd-looking electronic device through a checkpoint. And if it’s your job to make sure that no dangerous devices make it on the airplane, you sure aren’t going to let an odd-looking device through without further investigation.
Unfortunately for our poor traveller, being pulled aside for a secondary screening, and missing his flight, sure seems like overkill for what was an innocent piece of luggage. But the TSA agent didn’t know that, and if the “device” did end up causing a tragedy, even if he wouldn’t be legally responsible, he’d certainly feel terrible.
So next time you fly, and get hassled by the TSA, remember that they are just trying to keep people safe. And keeping people safe requires that if there’s even a shadow of a doubt that something might be dangerous, it must be treated as a real danger.
Something to think about next time you go to an airport.