Report: Unplugged Metal Detector Causes Chaos at NYC Airport
NEW YORK — The Transportation Safety Administration has another public-relations fiasco on its hands after a TSA screening agent at New York’s JFK Airport reportedly let at least two plane-loads of passengers pass through his metal detector without noticing that it wasn’t even plugged-in.
According to the New York Post, the security foul-up led to the evacuation of a terminal at the airport last week, and hundreds of passengers on two flights had to be pulled from their planes and led back through security.
“The truth is, this is the failure of the most basic level of diligence,” a law-enforcement source told The Post. “How can you expect the public to feel confident of the mission of the TSA if they don’t even know if the lights are turned on?”
The Post reports that the agent couldn’t tell police how long the machine had been turned off, or how it happened. Authorities told the Post that they have no idea how many people passed through the unplugged metal detector before the power issue was discovered.
The TSA declined to comment on the specifics of the incident, the Post reported, only saying that a metal detector suffered a “malfunction.”
The alleged “malfunction” led to the delay of eight to 10 flights for up to two hours, the Post reports.
