Our Airport Screeners at work

From STLtoday :

"'Suspicious' luggage prompts alarm at Lambert
Post-Dispatch
05/10/2005

Things are back to normal now at Lambert Field, where passengers were being routed out of one area after security screeners thought they saw something suspicious in a piece of luggage.

Airport officials say that screeners thought they saw something suspicious about 10:50 this morning in Concourse A and called the county bomb and arson squad. People who were flying from the A Concourse were taken over to the B Concourse for security screening while authorities examined the object.

The airport got the all clear report by about 11:30. Some passengers experienced 10- to 15-minute delays, but airport officials said things are now back to regular operations.

The suspicious item, officials said, turned out to be a socket wrench. He was allowed to fly on to Charlotte, N.C., after authorities called his employer and verified he needed the wrench for his job."

Okay, I know what a socket wrench looks like, and I've also seen some specialized wrenches which look "strange". But they don't look like BOMBS. What idiots. I take the airport screening seriously, and they should too. Two things stand out, also. Why the county bomb squad? The airport is owned and operated by the city. And two, the entire affair was over in 40 minutes. With drive time the bomb squad could have been there in 15 to 20, cordoning off the area would take maybe 10. It looks like once the bomb specialist looked at the item they could have said "it is a wrench, you idiots", and walked away.