Craig6z
Feb 6, 04, 10:39 am
Long LA Times article today, describing a January 15 Delta incident. Note LA Times articles become registration only about a day after publication:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-passenger6feb06,1,6584773.story?coll=la-home -local (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-passenger6feb06,1,6584773.story?coll=la-home-local)
Airport cameras captured it all: On a busy morning at Los Angeles International Airport last month, a convicted felon wearing a sweatshirt, sunglasses and gloves strolled unnoticed past two security checkpoints in Terminal 5 and walked onto a jumbo jet without a ticket.
Kareem Thomas, a 19-year-old Decatur, Ga., resident on probation for burglary, was discovered hiding in an airplane restroom by passengers and was apprehended by police before takeoff.
Thomas was unarmed and passed through the airport's metal detectors along with other travelers. But the ease with which he boarded the Jan. 15 Delta Airlines Flight 1972 to Atlanta — particularly at a time of heightened security at the state's No. 1 terrorist target — alarmed passengers on the flight and triggered investigations by two federal agencies and the airline.
"Clearly this was a monumental security screw-up," said Santa Monica resident John Hall, who was a passenger on the flight. "Here I am, along with all the other passengers, taking off our shoes and waiting in endless lines to board a plane and this guy just strolls past the security net."
[snip]
said Larry Fetters, the TSA's federal security director at LAX
[snip]
At LAX, he said, "Millions of people have gone past screening checkpoints in the last year and only one person got through who shouldn't have been in there."
[snip]
Then he climbed the stairs, proceeded through a metal detector and made his way to Gate 52A, where he slipped unnoticed past two airline employees who were standing at the jetway to take boarding passes.
After boarding the Boeing 767, Thomas went into one of the restrooms. A 28-year-old television producer who had seen Thomas evade gate agents told a flight attendant, who knocked on the restroom door and demanded to see his ticket. When Thomas failed to produce a boarding pass, airline employees called police....
[This message has been edited by Craig6z (edited Feb 06, 2004).]
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-passenger6feb06,1,6584773.story?coll=la-home -local (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-passenger6feb06,1,6584773.story?coll=la-home-local)
Airport cameras captured it all: On a busy morning at Los Angeles International Airport last month, a convicted felon wearing a sweatshirt, sunglasses and gloves strolled unnoticed past two security checkpoints in Terminal 5 and walked onto a jumbo jet without a ticket.
Kareem Thomas, a 19-year-old Decatur, Ga., resident on probation for burglary, was discovered hiding in an airplane restroom by passengers and was apprehended by police before takeoff.
Thomas was unarmed and passed through the airport's metal detectors along with other travelers. But the ease with which he boarded the Jan. 15 Delta Airlines Flight 1972 to Atlanta — particularly at a time of heightened security at the state's No. 1 terrorist target — alarmed passengers on the flight and triggered investigations by two federal agencies and the airline.
"Clearly this was a monumental security screw-up," said Santa Monica resident John Hall, who was a passenger on the flight. "Here I am, along with all the other passengers, taking off our shoes and waiting in endless lines to board a plane and this guy just strolls past the security net."
[snip]
said Larry Fetters, the TSA's federal security director at LAX
[snip]
At LAX, he said, "Millions of people have gone past screening checkpoints in the last year and only one person got through who shouldn't have been in there."
[snip]
Then he climbed the stairs, proceeded through a metal detector and made his way to Gate 52A, where he slipped unnoticed past two airline employees who were standing at the jetway to take boarding passes.
After boarding the Boeing 767, Thomas went into one of the restrooms. A 28-year-old television producer who had seen Thomas evade gate agents told a flight attendant, who knocked on the restroom door and demanded to see his ticket. When Thomas failed to produce a boarding pass, airline employees called police....
[This message has been edited by Craig6z (edited Feb 06, 2004).]