Minnesota’s Kahler Nygard drew a Spirit Air boarding car with the dreaded “SSSS” extra-search marker, and halfway to Denver, Spirit and/or the TSA decided he hadn’t been searched properly (he says he was), so they panicked and dragged him off the plane in Denver for another search because he might have been a time-traveller who could harm a plane after getting off of it.
Nygard’s video is pretty hilarious — eventually he just walks away from the TSA guy who won’t tell him whether he’s being detained or not, nor why he needs to be searched.
The TSA agent, Andrew Grossman, first demands Nygard’s boarding pass. Nygard points out that he no longer has it (you don’t need it after you board), which stumps Grossman, leading him to have to make a phone call — where he helpfully tells whoever he’s talking to at the other end that Nygard is “pretty objectionable, filming me.” Nygard keeps asking why they need to search him, and the TSA has no good answer, other than saying they need to do so. Nygard asks if he’s being detained, and they don’t answer. He asks if it’s an order or a request and the TSA’s Grossman again doesn’t really answer (other than to say that he’s following orders). Finally, Nygard just walks away, saying that if he’s not being detained, he’s leaving. The TSA claims it’s calling the Denver police, who apparently did not do anything to stop Nygard, who walked out of the airport without any further problems.
TSA Not Sure If It Groped Man Before Flight, Demands To Grope Him After Flight Is Over [Mike Masnick/Techdirt]