AP Photo
The TSA may be cracking down at the gate, but the FAA probably has no idea if you're getting on the right plane. The Federal Aviation Administration is missing key information on 119,000—about a third—of the nation's 357,000 commercial aircraft. In many cases, the agency has no idea who owns the plane, if it's still in operation, or has been sold or junked lately. The record-keeping is so bad that police conducting drug busts have even raided the wrong plane because they were given such useless information. The FAA's information hole is a golden opportunity for terrorists and criminals, who don't have to worry about the U.S. government noticing things like suspicious plane purchases. Drug traffickers are already mixing up their registration numbers to carry thousands of pounds of cocaine to and from South America.