Gun smuggling on Delta flights shows up security

New York

CRITICS who have long complained that airport security measures are mostly "security theatre" have given a recent aviation gun-smuggling drama poor reviews.

On Dec 10, while 1.7 million other passengers were being routinely screened for weapons at security checkpoints in airports around the country, the authorities say that a man carrying a backpack containing 16 firearms with ammunition flew aboard a Delta Air Lines passenger jet to Kennedy International Airport in New York from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The suspect was arrested in New York that day after a months-long investigation into gun smuggling to New York from Atlanta.

"What we have in this case is an egregious breach of security down in that airport" in Atlanta, the Brooklyn district attorney, Kenneth P Thompson, said at a news conference last w…