Kennedy security breach unnerves some travelers

Boston (AP) — A breach that allowed 11 people to walk through an unattended security checkpoint lane at one of the nation’s busiest airports has some travelers scratching their heads about how this could happen even with the enhanced security measures put in place after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

The incident Monday at New York’s Kennedy Airport is being investigated by the Transportation Security Administration, the agency that was created to protect the nation’s airports after the 2001 attacks. The TSA said three passengers did not receive required secondary screening after they set off the metal detector at the unmanned checkpoint lane.

At Boston’s Logan International Airport — a staging point for two of the jetliners used in the 9/11 attacks — some travelers said they were surprised that a checkpoint lane could be left unattended at any airport.

“Mistakes happen, but they’re (TSA workers) supposed to be there to protect our lives,” said Kylie Welsh, who returned to Boston from a trip to Pittsburgh on Wednesday.

The TSA said in Monday’s incident that all carry-on bags received required screening and that it was confident the incident presented “minimal risk to the aviation transportation system.”

Post-9/11 security procedures include body scans, pat-downs, fortified cockpit doors, screening of checked luggage for explosives and a ban on large containers of liquids to prevent anyone from making an improvised explosive device during flight.

This isn’t the first time travelers who weren’t properly screened slipped through airport security.

“Unfortunately, it’s not as rare as it sounds,” said Jeffrey Price, a professor of aerospace management at Metropolitan State University in Denver.

“The biggest thing I don’t understand is why would everybody just walk away? What went wrong that that last person figured they could just wander off and leave the checkpoint abandoned?” Price said. “I’m sure every TSA person there knows you just don’t walk off and leave an access point open.”

A TSA spokesman declined to say whether any employees have been disciplined, but said the investigation into the incident is ongoing.

Bennet Waters, a former deputy assistant administrator of TSA, said the incident at JFK should not cause a crisis of confidence in airport security. “I think it’s fair for the flying public to be concerned any time a (security) layer is breached, but I think that concern has to be bound with the realization that there are multiple layers in the TSA security regime in use at all times.”