The Transportation Security Administration began investigating a string of screening breaches at Newark Liberty Airport Wednesday.
Three breaches in just five days involved passengers slipping through security without being fully screened.
The latest breach was at Checkpoint 1 in Terminal B. Screening was halted for 18 minutes after a passenger slipped through security lines unchecked by TSA agents.
On Monday, screening came to a standstill when a passenger grabbed her bags off the conveyor belt, even though they had been flagged for extra screening.
Last Friday, a passenger pulled aside for a full-body scan simply walked out.
The latest incidents come just days after the head of Newark’s TSA operations stepped down amid several embarrassing security breaches and blistering criticism from her own team of managers.
The new chief ordered a full review of procedures. Aviation experts said any slip-up was alarming.
While admitting it is disturbing, the TSA said “With millions of screens done daily there will be security related incidents such as those that recently occurred at Newark Airport that are quickly contained and brought to a satisfactory resolution.”
The agency said none of the recent incidents involved passengers deliberately trying to skirt security. All were eventually tracked down, screened and allowed to board their flights.
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3 Responses
Maybe stop hiring McDonald rejects for the job of securing our airports and planes! These pathetic individuals are very meticulous when it comes to patting down 5 year old boys and old grandmothers in wheel chairs maybe they should be focusing on other things…
They pulled a 90 year old woman over at Logan in boston, while i was traveling, while she was in a wheel chair to go through a full body scanner
I was asked what my tfillin had inside the boxes and when I said it was a religious item they smeared it with a Q-tip and checked for drugs.Afterward they apologized. Things like that should be covered in basic TSA training.