Airports: Not the best place to show your undying love

The security scare that shut New Jersey’s Newark Airport for several hours on Sunday was caused by a man slipping past security to give a woman a goodbye kiss, it has emerged.

Jittery airport authorities evacuated Newark’s Terminal C after they spotted video footage of someone sneaking past an unmanned security post and disappearing into a restricted area.

Coming so soon after the Detroit terror scare federal authorities had feared a potential plot was unfolding, but it’s now emerged the breach was nothing more than a lovestruck gesture.

CCTV footage of the incident was released by a US senator yesterday amid growing criticism of federal authorities for allowing the security lapse to occur.

In the video – which can be watched here – the man is seen slipping underneath a security cordon after a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officer leaves his desk.

The mystery man then strides up to a female passenger who had already passed through security, before giving her an apparent goodbye kiss and then ambling off screen hand-in-hand.

Officials have since placed the TSA guard who caused the breach on administrative leave.

“It is unacceptable that the Port Authority (the agency in charge of the airport) took so long to produce this tape, but now that it is public we have a better chance of getting to the bottom of this major security incident,” Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey said after releasing the video.

The closure of Newark Airport was just one of several security scares that followed the failed Detroit attack. On Tuesday, a passenger was detained at an airport in Bakersfield, California after screeners mistakenly identified a jar of honey he was carrying as an explosive substance.

© Cheapflights Ltd (Creative Commons image: aprillynn77 / Flickr)

This entry was posted on Friday, January 8th, 2010 at 12:22 pm and is filed under 172847. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.