KEWR on lockdown, no flights in or out.

[emshighway]

No exuse for this what so ever and whoever was watching that door should be collecting a pink slip today. There's no reason one way doors can't be install to prevent accidental entry to the secure areas.

I'm sure they will be.

[Matt Molnar]

WCBSTV.com now reporting the officer has been "reassigned."

[Art at ISP]

"reassigned" is not good enough. Terminated would be more suitable.

I would liketo see the video of the guy--perhaps they will release it so he can be identified. He was said to leave the terminal 20 minutes later--doesn't seem kosher to me.

[JetBlueAirwaysFan]

Art:
That's what I'm thinking. CO should sue for damages.

Same here. What happened at EWR has to have cost CO a very pretty penny with the amount of flights they have at EWR.

[emshighway]

"reassigned" is not good enough. Terminated would be more suitable.

Reassigned to non-screening duties is usually prelude to proposal for termination which is given then the person has 15 days to respond as why they should not be terminated. This is the procedure for non probational personnel.

[mirrodie]

Thanks TSA that your idiots can't even watch a lane :oops:

Whoa, Incoming missiles from EMSHighway.

Just playing.

I'm glad to hear that the person responsible is most likely to be terminated.
That is unsettling though that they don't know WHO went through the area and left again.


What I am trying to figure out is how exactly did they realize this person had come AND gone.

[Matt Molnar]

What I am trying to figure out is how exactly did they realize this person had come AND gone.

A person waiting to meet an arriving passenger saw the man go through the door and reported it to authorities. Reportedly the TSA agent manning the door had been distracted by another passenger asking a question.

The big problem: They didn't lock down the airport until two hours later. The guy had been gone for an hour and 40 minutes by then, and surely flights had boarded and left in that time.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/0 ... _airp.html

[Gerard]

My sister departed at 4:30 on DL792 to AMS
Thank goodness she avoided this mess.

One of my co-workers brother was already on a plane bound for Miami when he had to get off. He was on
a 7:30 flight that was already delayed an hour. He arrived in Miami around 7AM. What a nightmare!!!

[darlyn]

About the most unsettling aspect of this is the amazing incompetence shown by the Thousands Standing Around. Great job proving yet again that an entire agency is staffed by fools and overseen by equally slow administrators. Hiring all those half-illiterate highschool dropouts backfired in the predictably worst way. I'm glad the TSA hasn't been provided with firearms yet. It would be the taser abuse controversy all over again and several orders of magnitude more deadly.

Security theater indeed.

[coachrowsey]

[quote="darlyn". I'm glad the TSA hasn't been provided with firearms yet. .[/quote]

Pray that never happens.

[emshighway]

About the most unsettling aspect of this is the amazing incompetence shown by the Thousands Standing Around. Great job proving yet again that an entire agency is staffed by fools and overseen by equally slow administrators. Hiring all those half-illiterate highschool dropouts backfired in the predictably worst way. I'm glad the TSA hasn't been provided with firearms yet. It would be the taser abuse controversy all over again and several orders of magnitude more deadly.

Security theater indeed.

Well since some people are a low posters and probably new and don't know all the characters here we will take this as ignorance. Let's just say it is easy for some people to sit behind a keyboard and spout such comments such as above who probably have less education then the people they comment about.

There are TSA personnel who are armed. The TSA was stood up in a very small time hiring over 50,000 screening personnel within three months. Many of those have degrees and even doctorates. Everyone knows of the issues TSA has had but something I say is look at how screwed up other agencies are that have been in existence for 100-200 years. The TSA is just catching up quickly.

Congress has lessened the amount of screening personnel to 43,000. TSA HQ, trying to squeeze as much as they can out of that, have imposed a percentage that needs to be part timers. Basically you get what you paid for with part timers.

Typing launch sequence in...

[coachrowsey]

EMS:
I'm sure your heart is in the right place & that you are a good guy, but you've got to admit this whole thing was screwed up big time. IMO the govt. needs to get out of it all together.

[emshighway]

Never said it wasn't. The TSO was inattentive and will pay with his job.

The CCTV system, while funded by the TSA, is owned, operated and maintained by the PANYNJ.

[moose135]

IMO the govt. needs to get out of it all together.

A hundred years ago, I worked security down at Pan Am at JFK. I was mostly at the hangars, but occasionally went up to the terminal. I was employed by a private security company, which hired minimum wage guards, and we had about 5 minutes of training...talk about your "half-illiterate high school dropouts"...stories I could tell you would keep you up nights. As EMS said, you get what you pay for.

[emshighway]

IMO the govt. needs to get out of it all together.

A hundred years ago, I worked security down at Pan Am at JFK. I was mostly at the hangars, but occasionally went up to the terminal. I was employed by a private security company, which hired minimum wage guards, and we had about 5 minutes of training...talk about your "half-illiterate high school dropouts"...stories I could tell you would keep you up nights. As EMS said, you get what you pay for.

TSA Officers do go through a lot of training. They are mandated to do three hours of training a week. The problem with going back to private companies or handing it back to the airlines is the private companies are all about the $$. The airlines are more worried about getting the passenger ($$) on the plane. It has been proven the airlines would pressure the private companies they hired to "hurry up" the lines at the sake of security.