Whistleblower: Pilot Posts Video Exposing Airport Security Flaws

Pilot calls TSA's reaction "overkill" in exclusive interview

ByABC News
December 23, 2010, 4:33 PM

Dec. 23, 2010— -- The airline pilot who was reprimanded by the TSA for posting videos showing security flaws at a major airport is speaking out exclusively for the first time, saying that it was the "fallacy of the system" that inspired him to take this action.

Late last month a 50-year-old pilot, who asked that his name and the airline he works for not be made public, took a series of videos with his cell phone to show major flaws he says still exist in airport security systems. The videos show how easily ground crews at San Francisco International Airport were able to access secure areas.

"As you can see, airport security is kind of a farce. It's only smoke and mirrors so you people believe there is actually something going on here," the pilot says on one video.

The pilot says he has worked for his airline for over a decade, and was also an Army reserve helicopter test pilot. He was deputized by the TSA to carry a gun in the cockpit. But he said he'd had enough, and wanted to do what he could to draw attention to what he says is still a major problem in airport security.

"People don't understand that when they walk through the TSA checkpoints, well, they are getting, now they are getting a groping, but they don't understand that all those people you see outside, the ground personal, all the caterers, all the airline cleaners, they get virtually nothing," the pilot said in an interview with ABC News.

He uses the videos to make his point.

"I wanted to give you an idea of what type of security the ground crews go through, their screening is sliding a card and going through a door. Not screened at all," the pilot says in one clip.