Man arrested in Newark airport security breach

[alienlovechild 75]

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - A man believed to have breached security to bid his girlfriend goodbye, triggering the shutdown of a busy Newark Airport terminal that led to snarled flights worldwide, was arrested in New Jersey and faces a trespassing charge and a fine of up to $500, punishment a senator says should be much harsher.

Haisong Jiang, 28, of Piscataway was taken into custody at 7:30 p.m. Friday at his home, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said. He was questioned at the airport by Port Authority police, who arrested him, and released shortly after midnight.

The Port Authority said in a statement that Jiang will being charged with defiant trespass, and that the charge was determined in coordination with the Essex County prosecutor and federal officials, though it's not a federal charge. A spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration referred all questions to the Port Authority.

Jiang, who is Chinese, is a doctoral student in a joint molecular biosciences program at Rutgers University, one of his roommates said early Saturday. He said Jiang was born in Jiangxi, China, and has been in the U.S. since 2004.

New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who was briefed on the arrest, said authorities found Jiang with "sheer, hard police work" of sifting through records and following leads. But he expressed anger that Jiang faces a charge he described as a "slap on the wrist" and will only be given a fine of about $500.

The senator called Jiang's actions "premeditated" and said even though the his actions were relatively benign, "what he did was a terrible injustice" to the thousands of people who were inconvenienced.

The breach led the TSA to shut down one of Newark Liberty International's three terminals for six hours Sunday, stranding thousands of passengers and contributing to long delays.

A person with direct knowledge of the investigation told The Associated Press on Friday that the Transportation Security Administration worker who allegedly left his post is Ruben Hernandez of Newark. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is in progress.

TSA employees are not unionized, but the American Federation of Government Employees is representing him, said union spokesman Derrick Thomas. The union declined to publicly identify him. The TSA has said the guard has been on administrative leave since Tuesday.

The officer, who has been with the agency for 2 1/2 years, previously received a commendation for job performance, Thomas said.

"He's been rated a model employee," he said. "We intend to fully represent him to make sure this whole investigation is handled correctly and that he's not made a scapegoat for all that's been going wrong with security at the airports."

The union is reviewing reports that the officer was called from his post to investigate a disturbance in the seconds before the security breach, Thomas said.

On a surveillance video released Thursday by the TSA and the Port Authority, the guard is seen sitting at a security podium in an exit lane as passengers stream past on their way out of the terminal.

A man wearing a light-colored jacket stands inside a rope barrier, and the guard approaches the man, apparently telling him to move behind the rope.

Within a minute, the guard leaves the podium again and disappears into the crowd. A woman in a long white coat approaches the podium from inside the terminal; the man sees her and ducks under the security rope, and the two walk past, arm in arm.

The man was seen on a separate surveillance camera leaving the terminal about 20 minutes later, according to the TSA.

A bystander waiting for an arriving passenger noticed the breach and told the guard. TSA officials then discovered that surveillance cameras at the security checkpoint had not recorded the breach and were forced to consult backup security cameras operated by Continental Airlines.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100109/D9D48DH81.html

[slim 1,533]

And they wonder how someone can sneak an explosive onto a plane.

I can't believe the American people are actually stupid enough to think TSA is keeping them safe. Absolutely bonkers.

[Danno 1,228]

And they wonder how someone can sneak an explosive onto a plane.

I can't believe the American people are actually stupid enough to think TSA is keeping them safe. Absolutely bonkers.

It's actually a never ending cycle, the more one expects from Gov the more disappointed one is.

Typically the perfunctory response is to demand more!

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

Awwww SHITE! Give the guy a break!

[alienlovechild 75]

I can't believe the American people are actually stupid enough to think TSA is keeping them safe. Absolutely bonkers.

Scarecrows scare away some of the crows until the crow figure out the scarecrows aren't moving.

[scandal 951]

What amazes me about this episode is that 8 years after 9/11, American airports still have these open concourses for outbound flow from the secured to unsecured areas of the airport.

Prior to 9/11, any person at all could enter the secured area for domestic flights. You would need to go through the X-ray machine of course, but there was no need to show ID or have a boarding card. It was quite normal for people awaiting someone on an inbound flight to go through security and wait at the gate for the passenger to walk off the jetway.

9/11 changed that, so that now only passengers with valid ID and boarding card can enter the secured area and approach a gate. However US airports still have common concourses which mingle together outbound passengers waiting to board a plane with inbound passengers arriving and moving through the concourse to collect baggage and leave the airport. Hence, we have these open passages next to the X-ray machines where the exiting passengers may leave. They are supposed to be "one-way" avenues for exiting passengers only. It's through such a passage that this fellow at Newark entered.

Rather than just posting a TSA agent at these critical junctions to prevent entry of unsecured people, wouldn't it make much more sense to put in a turnstile that only permits one-way traffic? These things are common at amusement parks, sporting arenas, etc. It's pretty low tech, but much more effective than the current system. This guy would never have shut down EWR for 6 hours if we had these things installed at our airports.

[alienlovechild 75]

What amazes me about this episode is that 8 years after 9/11, American airports still have these open concourses for outbound flow from the secured to unsecured areas of the airport.

Rather than just posting a TSA agent at these critical junctions to prevent entry of unsecured people, wouldn't it make much more sense to put in a turnstile that only permits one-way traffic? These things are common at amusement parks, sporting arenas, etc. It's pretty low tech, but much more effective than the current system. This guy would never have shut down EWR for 6 hours if we had these things installed at our airports.

I was thinking the same thing. The back door is guarded by a single TSA guy and he isn't always watching apparently.

The turnstile means we have better security at Disney World than at airports. Forward your suggestion to the TSA.

[SuperDuper! 230]

Don't you guys really believe that the geniuses at the TSA have considered turnstiles at points that you are discussing? I'm sure they have their logic why they don't, such as traffic flow rate. There are a couple massive turnstiles at LAX that make one-way traffic from secure to unsecure areas of the international terminal.

[scandal 951]

Don't you guys really believe that the geniuses at the TSA have considered turnstiles at points that you are discussing? I'm sure they have their logic why they don't, such as traffic flow rate. There are a couple massive turnstiles at LAX that make one-way traffic from secure to unsecure areas of the international terminal.

I would certainly hope that they've considered this. If it idly occurs to me, I should hope it occurs to them too!

As to why they don't do it - I can't really think of a good reason why. When a concert or football game ends, you have thousands of people trying to get through these things to the exits and that doesn't seem to present a problem in terms of traffic flow rate. Besides, we wait on the planes for the doors to open so we can get off, we wait at security to go through the detectors, we wait at the baggage carousels, we wait at Starbucks for our coffees.... so what's a little bit of waiting to get through the turnstile?

I'm glad they have them at LAX now. They didn't last time I was there (about 6 years ago).