By now you've likely heard of the Edmonton-area teen who waltzed through airport security, handed over his gunpowder-packed pipe bomb to an allegedly befuddled screener, and took a plane to Mexico.
According to court transcripts, Skylar Murphy was planning to blow up a shed and, as we all do from time to time, forgot his explosive in a camera bag.
The RCMP believed he had no plans to blow up the airplane. A judge agreed, admonishing the teen about the dangers of Mexican jail before slapping his wrists to the tune of $600.
Murphy's story is so stupid it almost must be the truth, but one wonders if he'd be so readily believed if he'd been wearing a turban or had a name like Farooq.
Winnipeg doctor Ahmed Farooq was tossed from his flight in Denver for reciting his evening prayers. Other passengers have run into trouble for leaning on crutches that set off the metal detector, packing shampoo, or mentioning the movie Battlefield Earth (a colossal bomb).
We hope Murphy has a fruitful, bombfree future.
The security personnel at the Edmonton International Airport are another matter.
The screener who dealt with Murphy tried to give him back the pipe bomb, not recognizing it as an explosive despite its fuse.
The men and women charged with keeping the skies safe then waited four days to inform the RCMP.
Screeners have a hard, often thankless job, but we need an investigation to discover if this was a rare lapse in judgment, or institutional incompetence.
