Quantcast
New TSA lapse: TB patient flies from PHL to SFO – Metro US

New TSA lapse: TB patient flies from PHL to SFO

Bloated bureaucracy may again be to blame for a lapse that allowed a tuberculosis patient on a federal “no-fly” list to hop a flight from Philadelphia to San Francisco on Saturday.

The Center for Disease Control said the unidentified patient who was being treated at a Philadelphia hospital was put on the federal “no-fly” list Friday, but federal inspectors at the airport apparently had no idea Saturday when they let him onto a flight bound for San Francisco.

“Part of the investigation between us and TSA right now is what happened in that time between us putting him on the list and when he got on the plane,” CDC spokesman Dave Daigle said yesterday.

The man, described by health officials as visibly sick from the pulmonary disease, got past federal Transportation Security Administration inspectors in the latest gaffe by those charged with keeping dangerous travelers off planes. TSA did not return calls for comment.

TSA workers at Philadelphia’s airport have had a particularly troubling track record recently, including a report that their three bomb-sniffing dogs failed recertification tests.