Air travel security is retarded - why?

[BozMan82]

NTB - Thank you for your insight.

Regarding the accuracy of passenger manifests, what about security at the gate?

I remember getting a flight out of LAX last Christmas. When I got to my seat on the plane, some chick was already in it. We showed each other our boarding passes, and they were both for the same seat. Initially I thought a computer glitch assigned the same seat twice. The flight attendant eventually came over with the passenger manifest and inspected our boarding passes. It turned out that the girl was on the wrong plane!

The idiots working the gate for US Airways let someone on the plane without bothering to check that her boarding pass matched the flight! Looking back, it was not hard to see why passengers might mistakenly enter the wrong gate. The airline was constantly changing the gates around, and with all the noise in the terminal, it can be hard to hear the announcements.

Is this a security vulnerability? Could terrorists exploit this by stealing boarding passes or using fake ones?

Let's say a would-be terrorist makes it through the security checkpoint. Then, and only then, are authorities made aware of the security breach and able to identify the passenger. His flight is ordered not to take off. Undercover agents wait for him at his scheduled flight's gate, but he never shows. Turns out he boarded a completely different flight and has long since left the airport. Far fetched?

While it would be inconvenient, I think ID-verification at the gate would be helpful. At the very minimum, the airlines could require passengers to produce a photo ID at the gate and require their employees to verify all the flight information matches.

BTW, there is new technology in the pipeline to make going through security a lot less invasive. See here.