Channel 2 reporter says TSA geography issues have happened to others

ATLANTA — It was a story that gas gone viral on social media all over the world.
 
Channel 2's Justin Gray, who works in our Washington DC bureau, was stopped by the Transportation Security Administration in Orlando because the agent didn't know what the District of Columbia was and rejected his driver's license.
 
Gray said he's heard from hundreds of people about their own TSA problems.
 
From USA Today to the Washington Post, from Gawker and Mashable to the Drudge Report and Reddit, news organizations are taking an interest in what Channel 2 first reported happened to Gray at a TSA checkpoint at the Orlando International Airport.
 
A TSA agent demanded Gray's passport because he didn't know what the District of Columbia stood for on his Washington DC driver's license and didn't recognize it as a real US ID.
 
TSA officials said there's only been one formal complaint about a license problem in Orlando in the past two years but mistakes have happened at other airports.
 
Gray said he heard on Twitter from people all over the country who have experienced TSA ID problems.
 
Twitter user Stephanie M. said it happened to her in Indianapolis on Saturday too. She said the agent was nice but still didn't know what the District of Columbia was.
 
Another person tweeted Gray saying she was stopped in Atlanta because they didn't know Hawaii was part of the U.S.
 
Gray also heard from TSA. Officials emphasized by email and on the phone that it was an isolated incident and doesn't represent the vast majority of TSA agents
 
TSA's Ross Feinstein also tweeted this response:
 
"This weeks geography @jeopardy champion is @grayjustin. Yes, a crazy town, but washington d.c. is located in the united states. #pointgray"
 
TSA officials told Gray that agents go through specific and extensive training for the job. Before being hired, the agents are tested and they're given more than 120 hours of classroom and on the job training.

WSBTV