Even for perhaps the least competent agency in the federal government — over 20,000 TSA employees have been accused of misconduct, half of them multiple times — the New York area’s agents are a special lot.

When passengers clapping Usain Bolt’s olympic performance set off alarms for airport security, TSA agents ran through JFK airport screaming about a bomb and a shooting victim. Last month passengers were allowed into the terminal skipping security and delinquent agents covered it up, defying protocol by trying to find the passengers on their own, a few of which were finally found after they had taken off and screened when they arrived at their destination instead.

So it really come as much of a surprise that after New York LaGuardia was temporarily closed on Wednesday with three TSA agents taken to an area hospital for evaluation, having come into contact with a ‘hazardous substance’, an investigation has determined that it was… “a food item or spice.”

Transportation Security Administration agents came in contact with an unknown substance when inspecting a carry-on bag that had set off an alarm at an airport checkpoint shortly before 6 a.m., according to the TSA.

The encounter prompted reports that people were sick at the facility, and fire officials responded, a FDNY spokesperson said.

Three agents were believed to have been injured, and transported to the hospital for evaluation. They did not suffer serious injuries, police said without elaboration.

(Emphasis mine.)

The spice was “a white powder that was later deemed non-explosive” but as with all such things that embarrass the TSA their stupidity is merely pursued “out of an abundance of caution.”

The terminal D security checkpoint was closed for about 40 minutes.

(HT: Ken A.)