Undercover TSA Agent Sneaks Fake Bomb Past Newark Airport Security

While protesters are petitioning against the Transportation Security Administration's plan to no longer restrict airline passengers from bringing pocket knives on planes, we may need to redirect our focus on keeping bombs off of aircrafts.

Last week, an undercover investigator managed to sneak a fake bomb past a metal detector and pat-down at New Jersey's Newark Liberty Airport, reports the TSA.  The phony bomb was used to test the security measures at the Jersey airport and proved that safety regulation is not up to par.

"It's sort of like a red teaming scenario," said Frank Cilluffo of the Homeland Security Policy Institute to ABC News. "You intentionally look for where the weak point is in the system. I think it clearly identified a vulnerability."

On Friday, the TSA announced that it conducts weekly "red team" tests across the country, but at the agency refused to say how many times its officers had failed to find the hidden device.

According to the New York Post, the agent was part of a four-person "red team" that posed as ticketed passengers and went through the checkpoint leading to American Airlines, JetBlue and Delta.

"We do this all the time," a TSA official said. "And all the time, we have successes and failures."

However, New York Rep. Peter King called the overlook "inexcusable" and "disgraceful."

"The fact that 11½ years after 9/11 you're able to get explosives past security onto a plane is absolutely inexcusable; it's disgraceful," Rep. King (R-N.Y.) told The New Jersey Star-Ledger in a telephone interview.

"Over the years, there's been a number of security breaches at Newark airport ... such as people being at areas of the airport where they're not allowed to be."

He also requested a "top-to-bottom" review today of TSA operations at Newark, according to The Associated Press.