[Infowarrior] - Labored Goodbye Led to NJ Airport Breach

[Richard Forno]

  Couple's Labored Goodbye Led to NJ Airport Breach
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: January 7, 2010
Filed at 3:13 p.m. ET

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/01/07/us/AP-US-Newark-Airport-Evacuation.html

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- Call it the tortured airport goodbye felt around  
the world.

A man struggling to say goodbye to a female companion took advantage  
of a guard's absence to sneak past a Newark Liberty International  
Airport security checkpoint Sunday evening, causing a terminal  
shutdown the delayed flights across the globe and calling into  
question just how secure the nation's airports really are.

The couple's actions emerged in a surveillance video released Thursday  
by the office of Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., who had pushed the  
Transportation Security Administration to release the footage.

The video shows a man embracing a woman before she enters a secured,  
passengers-only area of the terminal.

The man stations himself near an exit lane, where departing passengers  
pass a security guard to leave the terminal. A minute or so later,  
after the guard leaves his podium for several seconds, the woman comes  
back toward the exit and motions to the man, who ducks under the rope  
and walks into the passenger-only area.

During the time the guard was away from his post, dozens of passengers  
are seen walking out through the exit lane, further obscuring the man  
and woman. Someone waiting for an arriving passenger notified the  
security officer.

The security officer has been placed on administrative leave while the  
TSA investigates the breach.

One of Newark's terminals was closed for six hours Sunday night,  
stranding thousands of passengers and wreaking havoc on flight  
schedules around the world for more than a day.

During a news conference at the airport Wednesday, Lautenberg and  
fellow Sen. Robert Menendez and Rep. Donald Payne, also of New Jersey,  
criticized the TSA for the actions of the guard and for the revelation  
that the security camera at the checkpoint was streaming live video  
but wasn't recording at the time of the incident.

That forced TSA officials to seek out footage from security cameras  
operated by Continental Airlines, which delayed the notification of  
law enforcement personnel on site for about an hour.

Another surveillance camera showed the man leaving by a separate exit  
about 20 minutes after he entered. He has not been identified or  
located, but TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis said he would face criminal  
charges if he is found.

Lautenberg wasn't immediately available for comment on the video  
Thursday, but said in a statement that ''the release of this video  
will give law enforcement another tool to help find the person who  
breached the security gate at Newark Liberty Airport. I encourage this  
individual or anyone with knowledge of his identity to immediately  
contact law enforcement.''

Davis did not immediately return a message seeking comment on the  
surveillance video.

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