The TSA has long been criticized for what overly-invasive security theater, particularly when it comes to elderly travelers. But the next time Grandma's crying about how she had to strip naked and show her colostomy bag for the nosy TSA, remind her that oldsters aren't automatically innocent. Today a TSA spokesperson sent us this photo of a walker used by a 69-year-old Bronx man who tried to get through security with a knife "artfully concealed" on it. Apparently it wasn't artful enough! more ›

A TSA agent at JFK "started screaming at me and cursing me and threatening me," says a Long Island man who used his cell phone to videotape what he describes as an unnecessarily "aggressive" security screening of his developmentally disabled daughter. Dr. Joshua Frank, a Long Island pediatrician, is the father of Dina Frank, a girl with cerebral palsy who walks with crutches and leg braces. She can't pass through metal detectors for this reason, and is usually patted down by security agents, a procedure that frightens her. And the Frank family tells The Daily that on Monday the procedure was particularly harrowing. more ›

[UPDATE BELOW] Want to file a complaint against the TSA? No problemo, just fill out this simple form with the handwritten instructions to "GO TO HELLLLLL" (and be sure to eat sh*t and die)! Manhattan-based graphic designer Ross Berenson, 26, arrived at JFK on a JetBlue flight from LA yesterday to find that his luggage had been tampered with. And when he went to ask the TSA what happened, he says they gave him a form essentially urging him to cast himself off into eternal hellfire. more ›

A man aboard a Delta flight out of JFK yesterday afternoon decided to videotape the takeoff with his iPad, and managed to capture harrowing footage of the bird strike that forced the pilot to make an emergency landing back at the airport. Grant Cardone, a motivational speaker, says he had a "crazy intuition" to videotape the takeoff, during which you see the birds being engulfed by the right engine, making a sound "like a smartcar being consumed through the engine," as he puts it. Here's video: more ›

After a long, unpleasant flight you've landed at one of our local airports and just want to get home. You really aren't feeling our airports "mass transit" options and the line for cabs looks long. Still! Please, please, please, don't just take a ride from one of the hustlers calling out to you. Because you will get ripped off. Plus, the Port Authority would much rather arrest those guys. And then arrest them again and again and again. more ›

Yesterday a man tried to smuggle a knife onto a flight from JFK to Mexico City—and he might have gotten away with it too had he not decided to hide it inside another item he wasn't allowed to have. The TSA says the unidentified knife-wielder desperately wanted to bring his precious Leatherman blade aboard the plane. But the uptight TSA rules prohibit these sort of shenanigans! So why not sneak it aboard inside a big full jar of mayonnaise? That plan's a Swiss watch. more ›

[Update below from another passenger who was in the eighth row.] Grant F. Heppes, a Brooklyn-based marketing director, was seated about halfway back during this morning's crazy JetBlue flight from JFK to Las Vegas. About halfway through the flight, he started to hear a commotion. Heppes tells us, "I saw a JetBlue employee walk from the front of the cabin to the back, and then from back to front. Later I found out that was the pilot who was freaking out. Once he was up front I heard him banging on cockpit door, screaming, 'Let me in!' " more ›

A JetBlue flight from JFK airport to Las Vegas had to make an emergency landing in Amarillo, Texas this morning after the captain had some sort of "meltdown." Initial reports from Fox 5 had it that "a man apparently told passengers to 'say their prayers' and tried to storm the cockpit." That man, it turns out, was the freaking CAPTAIN, who had to be subdued by an off-duty NYC cop and by an off-duty JetBlue pilot. [UPDATE: We spoke with a passenger on the flight.] Here's video taken by one passenger after the Captain was subdued—be sure to watch all the way to the end for a real New York moment in Texas: more ›

If you See Something, Say Something on as many social media platforms that your little hands can muster, and your friends will get in touch with the authorities for you! A Facebook status update from a man on a weekend fight to JFK Airport worried his friends enough to apparently contact the authorities. According to the Post, "A jittery flier sparked a scare after posting about 'suspicious' co-passengers on Facebook — prompting his online pals to alert authorities, who then scrambled to meet the flight at Kennedy"—the authorities take "suspicious passengers" very seriously—"When confronted, Delta passenger Benjamin Miller Rosen, 25, admitted, 'I get nervous on flights.'" more ›

A woman with an antique dagger in her bag managed to get past TSA screeners at JFK Airport—and then the TSA took 10 minutes to call the Port Authority police. The Post says, "Port Authority police are supposed to be called immediately in the event of a security breech. Yet this slip-up was just the latest in a string of embarrassing security mishaps — three in February — by the federal Transportation Security Administration." more ›

Chaos at JFK Airport! An individual who had been flagged by the TSA and was asked for a secondary screening apparently walked away around 5:20 a.m., causing security to shut down Terminal 7, clear it out, and then re-screen all the passengers. The terminal reopened at around 7:40 a.m. more ›

When it comes to bad airports, New York is number one! At least that's what a story in Frommer's would have us believe. In a list of the ten worst airport terminals in the world, the travel company singled out all three of New York's major airports for consideration. Why? "In large part because they're run by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, a hideously mismanaged money sink that does a poor job of responding to air travelers' needs." more ›

The TSA, flush with change from your pocket, has finally gotten around to apologizing to the elderly women who were strip-searched at the JetBlue terminal at JFK over the Thanksgiving holiday. Well, sort of. more ›

It turns out that dignity isn't the only thing lost at TSA screening checkpoints. The Daily News reports that in 2010 the agency made $409,000 in loose change left behind by hurried, worn down travelers. Specifically, $376,480 in US currency and another $32,605 in foreign coins. JFK collected the most, with $46,918. "I wish they would spend that money on mood lighting," comedian Dave Hill told the paper. "If I'm going to get additional screening, how about throwing in a little more romance." Ha ha, he's referring to alleged sexual assault committed by government agents trusted to protect us, get it? more ›

Some criminals did not get their Christmas present this year. Last week Customs and Border Protection say they found nearly $300,000 in counterfeit $100 dollar bills in the bag of a woman flying into JFK from Medellin, Colombia. Sadly, the stash wasn't found by the TSA—because we'd love to have seen the note they might have left with all that fake moolah. more ›

Another day, another older woman comes forward with tales of woe from the TSA! Say hello to Linda Kallish, 66, of Boynton Beach, Florida, who says that she too was forced to take her clothes off by TSA agents at JFK Airport while trying to leave after the Thanksgiving holidays. In fact, she says she was made to strip while trying to board the same flight as 85-year-old alleged TSA-victim Lenore Zimmerman. Kallish is now the third woman to say she was stripped by TSA agents at JFK that weekend. more ›

Seems like somebody at the TSA had some issues to work out with Grandma over Thanksgiving. After this weekend's revelations regarding an 85-year-old woman being strip searched, a second elderly woman has come forward saying that she was stripped by agents at the JetBlue terminal at JFK after the holiday—in this case so that they could examine the 88-year-old's colostomy bag. Which, if you've ever known someone who had one, is an embarrassing thing to have to whip out for strangers. Even in a private room. more ›

Oh, TSA. Today, the Daily News reports that an 85-year-old woman was strip-searched earlier this week right before a flight to Fort Lauderdale—and she's really unhappy. Lenore Zimmerman, who lives on Long Island, says, "I walk with a walker — I really look like a terrorist. I’m tiny. I weigh 110 pounds, 107 without clothes"—with her hunched back, she's 4'11"—"and I was strip-searched." See her photograph here—and naturally, Zimmerman is thinking about a lawsuit, especially since the ordeal left her bloodied up. more ›

Drug traffickers, apparently tired of storing their stash in hangers, saris and sneakers, have found a new place to hide the goods: your luggage. So now you can pay a "checked baggage fee" AND bail when you're busted for being a drug mule! more ›

The TSA: When they're not hiding creepy notes in your luggage they're just straight-up stealing stuff. Two former TSA workers at JFK Airport pleaded guilty yesterday to grand larceny after they were caught swiping $40,000 from somebody's luggage. Coumar Persad, 44, of Jackson Heights, Queens, and Davon Webb, 31, of the Bronx will each serve six months in jail for their crime, which was perpetrated in January after Persad X-rayed a piece of baggage headed for an American Airlines flight. more ›

Sure, the TSA's list of prohibited items for carry-on and checked luggage might say that brass knuckles, stun guns, daggers and swords are allowed in checked bags, but when TSA agents find "four sets of brass knuckles, four stun- gun batons, a dagger and a sword" in your bags at JFK Airport, they are probably going to arrest you. Because items like brass knuckles and stun guns are illegal in New York. more ›

By now you may have heard the galling story of Lori Dorn, the breast cancer survivor who was subjected to a humiliating pat-down at JFK airport last month. Dorn wrote about the experience on her blog, igniting a media firestorm that has resulted in something as elusive as a cure for cancer: A TSA apology (albeit a qualified one). It all started when Dorn—who recently underwent a bilateral mastectomy and had tissue expanders implanted for future breast reconstruction—was going through screening to get to her Virgin Airways flight to San Francisco. But the tissue expanders set off the imaging scanner, and so the TSA demanded a pat-down. On her blog, she wrote: more ›

Yesterday, the FBI met a Delta flight that landed at JFK Airport from London. Why? Because of a suspicious passenger An early report said that a passenger or group made threats against President Obama, but MyFoxNY reports that the FBI said, "The FBI met the flight and an individual from that flight was denied entry to the U.S. There was no threat to the president." more ›

It's unclear whether Jose Acosta was working on his memoirs or simply begging to get busted when he boarded a JetBlue flight from St. Lucia to JFK carrying handwritten notes titled "Confessions of the Mule." But the Daily News reports that his handwritten confession quickly became a verbal one after he was questioned by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection inspector when he landed on Monday. "The charade is up: you've got me," Acosta allegedly told the inspector. Worst game of charades EVER? more ›

They're all just thieving, gropey-handed perverts until they actually catch someone: TSA agents at JFK airport nabbed a 54-year-old man yesterday with a battery-powered stun gun, three "electric stun batons," an "electric stun pen," and pepper spray. According to the Post, Mohamed Hefni was waiting in a first-class lounge to board a Saudi Airlines flight to Riyadh when he was detained for the contents of his checked bag. more ›

This morning, a Delta flight that took off from Laguardia Airport, headed toward Boston, was forced to land after a bird strike. NYC Aviation reports, "A Delta Air Lines Airbus A319 suffered an engine failure after hitting a bird over New York late Thursday morning. The flight made an emergency landing 20 minutes later without incident." more ›

This morning, a flight from JFK Airport, headed to Phoenix, was diverted to St. Louis' Lambert Airport. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the diversion was "for security reasons after three male passengers acted suspiciously, officials say." However, it wasn't a terrorist issue... it possibly has something to do with seat assignments and backgammon. more ›

The city's three major airports are resuming and rescheduling the hundreds of flights cancelled by Hurricane Irene, though officials warn that not everything is hunky dory just yet. more ›