A 25-lb housecat squiggled away from its owner at Newark Airport on Tuesday morning, proceeding to wedge itself beneath a luggage screening machine and forcing a Terminal A security checkpoint to be temporarily closed.
After initial attempts to simply pull the cat out of the 4-inch space failed, Checkpoint A-2 was closed for about half an hour as the Port Authority Police Emergency Services Unit used a hydraulic device to lift the multi-ton machine and free the cat, who was unharmed. Travelers were diverted to other checkpoints.
The cat’s owner and her daughter missed their Continental Airlines flight to Florida, but were able to return for a later departure.