Goodbye kiss provoked Newark airport scare: report

Source: Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The security scare that shut Newark airport for hours and delayed thousands of passengers was caused by a man who slipped into a secure area to give a woman one last goodbye kiss, a newspaper reported on Thursday.

The breach at Newark Liberty International Airport, one of three major airports serving the New York City area, rattled security officials and the airline industry because it came so soon after the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner.

A videotape of the Newark incident shows the man embracing a woman at the C-1 security checkpoint before she passes through passenger screening, the Star-Ledger newspaper of New Jersey said, citing unnamed security officials who have viewed the tape.

The man, who was not a passenger, walks past a spot where a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officer should have been stationed to move closer to the woman, the paper said.

The woman holds up a rope meant to keep unscreened people out of the secure area so that the man can passes underneath, and they walk hand-in-hand toward the boarding area before disappearing from view, the paper reported.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6063J820100107

---

Selfish and/or stupid aholes.

however a TSA agent should have been at the post to stop it also.

Frankly if some guy stealing a final kiss at an airport can shut the whole fucking terminal down and screw up thousands of passangers' flights...then we have a HUGE security crisis in this country.

Maybe it was a good thing because tens of thousands of travelers got the opportunity to get pulled off their planes, to stand around for hours on end, and as to line up and go through security a second time.

So what's wrong with that? As long as it keeps us safe.

:sarcasm:

I hope it was one of the few "perfect kisses" in the world. Oh, wait. This is the real world, not the movies...
I love my husband very much, but I wouldn't put my personal emotions ahead of common sense, and I would actually be pissed at him if he did that.

Dude, don't show me how much you love me by going to jail over it.

Haele

:rofl:

Plus it all seems rather self-absorbed of them -- i.e., more of the usual notion that speed limits, queues, regulations apply to other people and not to oneself. I'm reminded of people who ignore "No right on red" signs or answer their cell phones in the theater.

its just not a scenario they train for.

but as we speak, there is a committee being formed to explore the idea of designing ropes that cannot be lifted. Projected price tag for project = $2 billion

Exploring the designing of the ropes will cost another $2B at least, I'm sure.

Then we get to actually designing the design of the ropes, which will also be very spendy indeed, I'm sure.

Before or after the $100 million body scanners?

:wtf:

:rant:

Supplied by the Cheney-Rove Anti-Terror Devices Corp.

Don't work.

mark

Time to bomb the Caribbean!

mikey_the_rat

Where was the agent?
If one was not scheduled for the area, who is the supervisor who pulled that stunt?

Sure there were signs telling the idiot not to enter, but idiot either don't read signs or think they don't apply to them.

How did 'they' know in the first place how this breach occurred?

That's a relevant question, because if it was the video, then it is the incompetence of TSA that they would call an alert for a good-bye kiss.

But one has to wonder if this incident would have even evoked such a major response if it hadn't happened after the 'underwear' fizzle.

In other words, this may be an example of how the terrorists win when they can so easily yank our chain by getting some mope to set himself on fire on a plane every now and then.

Recommended penalty: execution.

when security is delegated to the lowest bidder. God forbid we should hire professional (union) workers to handle a critical function. Oh wait, we do this with police and firefighters. Gotta fix that so we can enjoy the efficient service of a free enterprise operation.

Terrorism, crashing into oceans. It is the risk you take. I doubt there in any way to limit every single risk anyway. unless absolutely necessary. Because I have a fear of crashing in a plane I have only flown twice. Once for my honeymoon and once for a trip to Disney with my kids because my husband so wanted to go. I would need lots of alcohol to get on a third time.

to eating areas in a semi-finished portion at Miami airport a couple of years ago. I had already
cleared security. I took one step past her desk and then she said it was shorter to go a different
direction. I took a step that way and she told me I couldn't do it. I had to go back and clear security
again.

Talk about teh stupid. No signs saying "No return from this point". She was talking with me
the entire time and I was the only person there.

I went through security again and raised a ruckus--asked for a supervisor. When I passed her checkpoint
again--after re-clearing security, eating and heading to my gate, there was a hand lettered sign
taped to her desk saying "No return from here".

TSA Management actually get bonuses based on "fulfilling the Mission" with the least amount of Officers! The STSOs have no say on how many Officers are scheduled to work a checkpoint. Check out the leaked SOP. It actually says "the following list of duties must not be interpreted to be the minimum screening location staffing model". Which means that they don't want to be nailed down on the minimum number of Officers needed to ensure that a checkpoint is secure. This is one of the reasons why TSA needs to be unionized!
Also the media talked about the video tape not recording. The Airport Authority is responsible for monitoring and maintaining the video tape equipment, not TSA.

BUT OH MY GOD! SOMEONE STOLE A KISS!!!

as for the couple, well, that's being a human.

The TSA and the DHS should be disbanded and we should start living like free citizens instead of concentration camp prisoners.

Go to http://lautenberg.senate.gov/newsroom/record.cfm?id=321363&

I watched the video and frankly, I would not have shot down the airport over this incident. The guy was clearly not a terrorist but just someone who wanted to say goodbye to his girlfriend. I am disgusted with the TSA screener though. WTF was he doing just walking away from his post?

and, oh, guess what? They did, but in the public area of the airport! :wow: What a concept!

Just because TSA overreacted doesn't mean this selfish asshat should be of the hook for thinking he was so special he could simply ignore the law & go into an area of the airport he had no lawful right to be.

dg

some people here are either obtuse, or never passed reading comprehension class.

dg

I'd love to know how you tell that from the video.

The guy is clearly an idiot, thinking he could walk through the exit from the gate area and bypass the security checkpoint.

Tell me America, Is THIS the way you want to live?

REALLY?

TRULY?

Where we hide under the bed and shit our pants over a GOODBYE KISS from people who are as harmless as gnats?

Is this the kind of BULLSHIT you want to live under?

If so, then we deserve whatever we get.

Enough Is ENOUGH.

FUCK THE TSA.

As was mentioned in another thread, we have gone from "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" to

"Just Keep Me Safe!"

It's pathetic.

We have become a nation of dumbed down, ignorant jellyfish.

Maybe a theater usher?

So, let's hear your solution for managing to get thousands of people a day out of the gate/boarding area, and stopping any single person from getting back through that exit?