I'm not condoning this sort of thing y'unnerstan', but as far as I can tell the thinking is: she might have had a (gasp) weapon, and since the TSA lost sight of her, she might have passed said (gasp) weapon to anyone anywhere in the secure (hah !) area including those on planes at the gate.

The article doesn't say, but you can bet 1) the woman was not found and 2) no (gasp) weapon was found. Yawn.