Calibrating the US airport safety net every morning

Washington

ON an early Monday morning when few people were around, Virginia Sams slipped a gun-shaped object into her sock and walked through a metal detector. She took one step back and one step forward, a quick march over a battle line of sorts. The machine reacted angrily, with beeps and blinking red lights.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) supervisor repeated the choreography again, with a few adjustments: she moved the prop up and around her uniformed body more than a half-dozen times, ending the exercise at the top of her head. The machine again loudly protested.