Strangely enough, the very next week, Thursday 28th February, I was flying out of PHL from terminal A, and there was another security alert involving a passenger breaching security. Once again, terminals B & C were shut down for about an hour.
Now, I'm definitely in favour of being safe rather than sorry, but PHL seems to be getting more than it's fair share of security cock-ups - which this undoubtedly was because what happened really wasn't this woman's fault.
Instead of the knee-jerk response of closing ranks around your airline/airport colleagues against the media, maybe a more open and intellient discussion about what can be done to improve security, while not making life hell for passengers, would be in order. After all, if passengers start deciding that air travel is just too dangerous, tedious or stressful, it's your jobs that will be cut.
I don't think that US security is a laughing stock. I do think that, certianly at PHL, it is not being accomplished in a very efficient or thorough way. The infrastructure at most US airports is simply not designed to cope with the level of security that is now being required of them. However, in the full knowledge of this, seven months later, still there is precious little being done about it.
I also think that the US authorities should maybe swallow their pride a little and go ask the European airports, who have had to deal with the terrorist threat for a lot longer, how they might improve matters.
Most American travellers I have spoken to who have been through London airports have expressed surprise at the security measures they encountered there. On being pressed further, though, they commented that it made them feel more secure. They also comment that the whole security business was at the same time quicker and less of a nuisance.
Maybe PHL could think about installing more than 1 (or if lucky, at peak times 2) x-ray machines per terminal. That would be a good start. Maybe also would doing something more reliable than posting a bored airport security worker on a stool to guard a vast 20'x8' gap which is used for passengers exiting the terminal and which completely bypasses the security checks.
I live in hope.