Don't connect through Newark.

Twenty bucks says this supervisor is still banging his head against his desk.

Baggage screeners at Newark Liberty International Airport spotted - and then lost - a fake bomb planted in luggage by a supervisor during a training exercise. Despite an hours-long search Tuesday night, the bag, containing a fake bomb complete with wires, a detonator and a clock, made it onto an Amsterdam-bound flight. It was recovered by airport security officials in Amsterdam when the flight landed several hours later. [...]

In October, The Star-Ledger of Newark reported that screeners missed one in four fake explosives and weapons in secret weekly tests conducted throughout the summer by TSA agents. Screeners there also have been plagued by problems with absenteeism.

In Tuesday night's test, a TSA supervisor secretly placed the bomb, which was designed to resemble the plastic explosive Semtex, inside a bag that was put through screening machines, Davis said. A baggage screening machine sounded an alarm, but workers somehow lost track of the bag, which was then loaded onto the Continental Airlines flight that was due to take off around 6 p.m.

That's right - the system spotted the "bomb," sounded the alarm, and in the resulting confusion, they actually managed to get it on a plane and across the ocean. Very encouraging. But you know, it could have been worse.

The Newark incident closely resembled another embarrassing incident last week in France, where security officials lost a bag containing real explosives that were being used to train bomb-sniffing dogs. That led French authorities to prohibit using live explosives in future tests.

Probably a wise choice.