September 11th made all of us realize the importance of airport safety. Keeping weapons and explosives away from passengers is a top priority for the TSA.
On Thursday, local TSA officers got a close look at the damage that can be done by explosive devices during a training course at Public Safety Training Facility in Sykesville. Ryan Morris, a bomb appraisal officer with the TSA says, "The reason we're in existence is because of September 11th."
It's the job of TSA officers to keep people safe when they travel. And when they're working at the airport, it means looking for hidden dangers. Cathy Pearl, a TSA officer at BWI Marshall Airport says, "Every time we do a bag search, we go into a bag, we have that potential of finding what we saw today."
As part of the training, they blew up a car, a laptop, even a shoe. Getting to see the damage first hand is an important lesson for these officers who are responsible for keeping people out of harms way. Pearl says, "When we do our bag searches, and search passengers, we look at it as if it's our mom, our dad, our grandma getting on that plane."
The ATF and local bomb squads assisted with Thursday's training.
