> The result was that "TSA agents failed 67 out of 70 tests, with Red Team members repeatedly able to get potential weapons through checkpoints

This is not due to poor training, it's the result of Directed Attention Fatigue, and it can't be fixed by better training.

People trying to get weapons on planes is rare, and a screening agent's typical day will involve looking at thousands of ordinary, boring scans with no intervention required. In situations like this, the mind starts to fill in the blanks and predict what the next scan will be and effectively "zones out".

The best way to fix the problem would be to introduce a steady stream of "false weapons" into the screening process and reward the agents for finding them. Of course, that would be disruptive in other ways.

It's not that the agents are not stupid, lazy, or poorly trained. It's just how we humans are wired.

BTW, this is the same reason why the "human assisted" self-driving cars are so dangerous. Humans can't be constantly vigilant when nothing is happening.

Sure we can blame the TSA agent for failing to find the knife. We can (and will) blame the drivers for not taking over control. But in both cases, the problem is that people have designed systems that assume humans can simply choose to ignore our own psychology, and do so at scale.

Next step: write your local congressional representative with your well-written summary of Directed Attention Fatigue. Unfortunately, your local congressional representative also perhaps suffers Directed Attention Fatigue.

Heh, my office does this with phishing. At irregular intervals—but a few times a month—they send us fake phishing emails and congratulate us if we catch them, or chastise and educate if we click the links.

> potential weapons

In case anyone is wondering, I've been part of similar Red Teams in Europe (incl flights towards USA) and "potential weapons" included AK-47's.

There was a high-profile case a few years ago where Slovakian border police put some RDX-based plastic explosive in the baggage of a passenger flying to Dublin, then forgot to remove it.

Thanks, I'm going to remember this next time I feel like I screwed up at work.

Another fun one. The CIA forgot a bomb in the engine of an actively used school bus after a training exercise.

https://www.npr.org/2016/04/01/472716101/cia-leaves-explosiv...

Did the weapons go through an xray? Did the humans looking at the xray just... ignore what they saw? How do you explain an AK-47 slipping through?

Haha, nice toy, pretty realistic. Next one.

I wonder if one could transport an airsoft weapon that way? I'm not willing to attempt it, of course. It could probably land you in jail in places such as Singapore, Thailand, China, Russia or the US. In Russia they have an article in the penal code specifically for "false terrorism declarations".

Did the weapons get through?

Yes, we obtained >90% success rates with (large) guns.

My sister worked in airport security for a while in the UK and their team also had >90% success rate.

Wow that's not a comforting thought. How is that even possible?

As everyone else has commented, security theater versus effective screening and detection methods.

Into carry on luggage? How do they miss assault rifles but catch my swiss army knife I forgot about? Every. Time.

Because swiss army knives are way more common than AK47s on carry on luggage? Directed Attention Fatigue?

I heard a story from a guy who was a hunter about how he forgot about some misplaced ammo in a backpack that he then used as carry on luggage. Of course security found it and he got himself a criminal record. It happened in Europe, where one doesn't buy ammo at the grocery store and it has to be stored under key separately from the firearm etc.

I smuggle things onto planes all the time. Nothing exciting, just bigger bottles of liquids. The trick? Just hide them in your clothes and walk through the metal detector. Rick Owens pants with a plethora of massive hidden pockets make this all the easier.

Not very high stakes obviously, worst case scenario I might end up losing a bottle of parfume or some hot sauce.

The TSA confiscates thousands of guns per year. I wonder, does that stat mean that potentially tens or hundreds of thousands of guns are getting by onto planes? Or is the average person who brings a gun to the airport just not as good at concealing it as these red teams?

Both.