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But, isn’t it also true that to become an FDO, he had to get a security clearance which is why he can’t do what he did?

I’m not entirely clear on what the security holes are that this guy exposed. I saw some doors he claimed went to the flight deck, a friend of mine in aviation said at least one he saw went to the employee break room instead.

Is it the responsiblity of TSA or airport ops to monitor everything the pilot pointed out?

This guy doesn’t feel right to me, personally. Let’s wait & see what he does with his 15 mins & book deal. Call it woman’s intuition.

To be an FFDO, he is is subject to a non-disclosure of the FFDO security SOPs. It does not bind him to non-disclosure of everything and anything. What he pointed out is not in the FFDO SOPs.

The security holes are the fact that no airport workers go through screening. They carry backpacks, etc. with no one even looking at them. Only an idiot would try and sneak something through UPSTAIRS with the passengers, when paying someone to carry something through DOWNSTAIRS is an option with zero risk. You could carry a "suitcase nuke" through as a ramp worker and no one would know.

It is not a question of the TSA monitoring all the doors or not, it is just that the pilot pointed out what EVERYONE who knows anything about perimeter security knows: ONE gap, makes all your efforts a WASTE. In otherwords, the passenger screening is a joke. Security theater only. It does not secure the aircraft from a knowledgable terrorist, and if the TSA knows this, why the fake security? Why not really secure the perimeter?

In this case your "woman's intuition" is exactly wrong. Every airline pilot in the US can back up what this guy is saying. Even the women pilots < grin >.

I think you’re right to be sceptical, and that is why I posed my original question at top.

I sense some over-eagerness in his self-promotion and am especially concerned that he did this “whistle-blowing” even though he had been given the additional trust of carrying a firearm.

The real problem with all the kerfuffle re airport security, pat-downs, etc., is the unspoken taboo against profiling.