Hostility Sensors Go Haywire at Atlanta Airport

by Skip DeKades

October 9, 2028 — Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport was shut down for several hours last night after hostility sensors went off at every security checkpoint throughout the facility.

“Everywhere you went, alarm bells were blaring,” said Harry D. Traveler, a New York consultant who was catching a flight home from a business trip. “I guess everybody in this place was feeling pretty cranky, and that’s why all the sensors went off.”

Airport authorities acknowledged they may have set the hostility sensors too high, prompting the devices to detect the smallest amount of hostile thought in passengers walking through security.  The incident occurred on a day when most flights at the airport were delayed and fee hikes for checked baggage were instituted.

It took security officials more than four hours to shut down the sensors and bring them back online at a more appropriate sensitivity level.

The Hostile Intent Detector, manufactured by Halliburton and deployed in more than 100 airports worldwide, are designed to identify potential terrorists and other violent individuals by measuring their pulse rate, breathing, skin temperature and fleeting facial expressions.  People who score high on those measures are taken aside for further screening. 

But FU transportation analyst Otto Buss said those scores could apply to most travelers in today’s overcrowded, antiquated airports, where flights are typically cancelled and delayed and luggage is routinely lost.

“Show me someone who doesn’t have a racing pulse, shortness of breath and angry facial expressions when they’re in an airport, and then you’ll convince me that this technology really protects us from hijackers and terrorists,” Buss said.

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