"Security breach at Logan part of larger problem"

Saturday, March 30, 2002

Security breach at Logan part of larger problem
By Shelley Murphy
The Boston (MA) Globe


A failure by security workers to stop a passenger who triggered a metal
detector at Logan International Airport yesterday forced several flight
delays and the evacuation of 300 travelers from the United Air Lines
concourse in a breach that is becoming a common occurrence at airports
throughout the country, according to aviation officials.

The 20-year-old man passed through the United Air Lines checkpoint at
Terminal C while the screeners were changing shifts around 8:30 a.m. and
disappeared into the crowd after setting off the metal detector, according
to Jim Peters, a spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration.

Although the passenger was found a short time later at Gate 16 and released
after being searched and questioned, the security breach prompted Massport
officials to evacuate passengers while State Police and the National Guard
conducted a search of the United Air Lines concourse, according to
officials.

''He may not have done anything improper,'' said Peters, adding that the man
wasn't charged and was allowed to board his United flight. ''But, the
procedure calls for evacuating the terminal and rescreening passengers.''

Three United flights were delayed while passengers were rescreened during a
process that took about an hour and a half, Peters said.

The security breach occurred one day after a passenger was arrested aboard a
Delta Express flight at Logan when he allegedly approached the cockpit
shortly before scheduled takeoff and demanded to get off the plane. The
passenger, Richard Lambertsen, is undergoing a psychiatric evaluation at
McLean Hospital.

Yesterday's incident marked the third time in five weeks that passengers had
to be evacuated from terminals at Logan because of a security problem. On
March 20 and Feb. 25, evacuations were ordered after metal detectors were
accidentally unplugged - the kind of lapse that has plagued other airports.

''These kinds of evacuations and rescreening procedures are happening on
almost a daily basis at commercial airports throughout the country,'' said
Peters, attributing them to US Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta's
''zero tolerance'' for security breaches.

''It inconveniences people, it delays aircraft from leaving on time, but at
the same time, it needs to be done,'' Peters said.

In recent weeks, unplugged machines in Boston, Birmingham, Ala., Buffalo,
Chicago, and Los Angeles forced the evacuation of airport terminals so that
passengers could be rescreened. But, unplugged metal detectors haven't been
the only source of security breaches at commercial airports around the
country.

When screeners at New York's LaGuardia Airport failed to check two
paramedics last week who were traveling with a passenger on a stretcher, the
breach forced security workers to evacuate the Delta Air Lines terminal,
pull passengers off planes and rescreen about 1,700 people.

A catering employee was fired at Newark International Airport earlier this
month after he passed through a Delta checkpoint without screening his
vendor's cart, forcing 10 flights to be delayed and 1,500 passengers to be
rescreened.

Last November, a University of Georgia football fan who dashed past security
guards at the Atlanta airport to catch a flight to a game was arrested. He
was sentenced earlier this month to 10 days in jail and barred from
attending the team's games.

The newly formed Transportation Security Administration assumed control of
security at all of the nation's commercial airports from private companies
on Feb. 17 and is trying to standardize its approach to security, Peters
said.

Phil Orlandella, a Massport spokesman, said that since Sept. 11, ''We all
have to think this is a new era for this industry. Some things have changed
and things could change further.''

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