...Moments later, a TSA agent watched as Aponte tried to cleared another door, by swiping his airport work ID and then entering a PIN number onto a keypad. Somehow, the agent lost track of Aponte. And TSA officials waited until 45 minutes after Aponte’s security breach to call Port Authority cops....
If the TSA agent knew this was the same person that was turned away at the checkpoint, TSA has a problem. If the TSA agent did not know this was the same person, then it doesn't seem like a TSA mistake, although I do wonder why so many people were watching a random person with a Delta ID going through an employee door.
That said, this is another example of what I think is the biggest flaw in TSA's SOP: an inability to stop someone inside the system from taking advantage of the system. (An earlier example is the TSA employees who were bribed to smuggle drugs through a checkpoint.) Who's watching the watchers?