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Man in airport screening incident no longer TSA worker

The Transportation Security Administration worker who jokingly pretended to plant a plastic bag of white powder in the carry-on luggage of a passenger at Philadelphia International Airport on Jan. 5 is no longer employed by the agency, TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis said.

The Transportation Security Administration worker who jokingly pretended to plant a plastic bag of white powder in the carry-on luggage of a passenger at Philadelphia International Airport on Jan. 5 is no longer employed by the agency, TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis said.

The incident occurred as Rebecca Solomon, 22, a University of Michigan student, was having her bags screened before her flight to Detroit.

Her ordeal was the subject of Daniel Rubin's Metro column Thursday. The employee told Solomon to say where she'd obtained the bag of powder, then about 20 seconds later smiled and said it was his, she said.

Solomon said she was told that the man trained TSA workers in detecting contraband.

Davis told Rubin she knew nothing to contradict Solomon's account.

TSA employs 49,000 security officers at 450 commercial airports. Davis said the TSA employee involved was not a security officer who screened passengers and he was not a supervisor. Davis said privacy laws prevented her from identifying the TSA worker and his job title, and whether he was fired or left on his own.    - Linda Loyd