Cale Ramaker's Blog

This one is a doozy! Check out what a crack "inspector" with the Transportation Security Administration did overnight at Chicago's O'Hare Airport...Plenty of comments possible from this story...

A Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officer was conducting routine checks to make sure that planes parked at the airport overnight were secure from tampering, according to the federal security agency and American Airlines, which owns and operates American Eagle.

But while ensuring that aircraft doors were locked properly, the inspector either stepped onto or grabbed sensitive avionics probes mounted on the fuselage of nine American Eagle planes, officials said.

"There is a sign that clearly says, 'Don't step,' " said American spokeswoman Mary Frances Fagan.

The grounding of the nine planes caused 40 flights to be delayed for American Eagle, a commuter airline that operates many short flights around the Midwest.

The security agency will retrain its inspectors to prevent a future occurrence, TSA spokesman Elio Montenegro said. But Montenegro also said, "Our inspector was following routine procedure for securing the aircraft that were on the tarmac."