NEWARK, N.J.(PIX11)—
Security officials at Newark-Liberty International Airport had Terminal C in a three-hour-plus lockdown, after a woman slipped through a checkpoint without being screened properly, that's according to the Newark Star Ledger.Terminals A and B were not involved.
The incident began Sunday at 8:45 a.m. More than 100 planes were grounded, and 65 departing flights were delayed. Things didn't get back to normal until noon, because each and every passenger departing Terminal C had to be checked again visually, said Al Della Fave, spokesman for the Port Authority Police. And, he added, planes cleared by the Air Traffic Control Tower sitting on the tarmac waiting to take off had to return to their respective gates to be checked again.
A statement put out by the Transportation Security Administration says the passenger in question left on a United Airlines flight to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, which landed without incident. No one knows right now how the woman wound up being screened improperly, and how TSA brass found out about it.
Meanwhile, adding to the chaos was an earlier incident around 6:30 a.m. Sunday that involved a large, checked bag heading for an aircraft -- sans screening. The TSA shut down the oversized baggage screening area until agents found the particular piece of luggage at 7:19 a.m., when they reopened it.
The bomb squad cleared the bag at 9:25 a.m.
United Airlines operates Terminal C, which handles three-quarters of all flights in and out of Newark-Liberty International Airport.
