NJ senators call for improved security, training at Newark airport in wake of breach

NJ senators call for improved security at airport

NEWARK, N.J. — New Jersey’s U.S. senators slammed federal authorities Wednesday over a security breach at Newark Liberty International Airport over the weekend and called for upgrades to surveillance camera systems and better training and accountability for security officers.

At a news conference in a terminal adjacent to the one that was shut down for six hours Sunday night, Sens. Robert Menendez and Frank Lautenberg and Rep. Donald Payne used terms like “major negligence” and “management failure” to describe the incident, in which an unidentified man entered Terminal C through an exit door and was not seen by the Transportation Security Administration officer assigned to the area.

The breach exposed flaws at three levels: at the exit, where the security officer failed to see the man entering a secure area; the subsequent discovery that security cameras weren’t working properly and hadn’t been storing images, and a resulting delay of about an hour before law enforcement authorities were notified, after TSA officials viewed images recorded on cameras owned by Continental Airlines.

“We don’t know what his mission was,” Lautenberg said referring to the man, who left the terminal 20 minutes after entering and has not been located. “Was he bird-dogging for a future mission, or was he just innocently looking for a friend?”

The security officer was initially reassigned to non-screening duties after the incident, and on Tuesday was placed on administrative leave, TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis said Wednesday. The TSA also said it has “modified the staffing and configuration at the exit lanes in Terminal C,” though Davis did not offer specifics.

Much attention has focused on the cameras since the incident. Davis said TSA officers have been checking the system regularly since Sunday; according to published reports, no recordings had been made for several days prior to the incident.

Davis said on Tuesday that the TSA wasn’t aware of the problem and didn’t notify the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which maintains the cameras, because the recorded images are only reviewed when an incident has occurred or is suspected.

Lautenberg likened the scenario to one in which a fire department didn’t notice one of its trucks had a flat tire until it had to respond to a call.

Menendez called it “unfathomable” that the recording system wasn’t already being checked routinely and suggested a system that would provide a warning when it stopped recording.

“There clearly are innovations that exist that will set off an alarm if your system shuts off,” he said. “You shouldn’t depend on whether or not there’s a security guard checking every hour on the hour — what if in the interim there was a failure of the system?”

In a statement, the TSA said it was working with the Port Authority “to ensure consistent performance and confirm operational readiness” of the camera system.

Lautenberg said he has called for a Senate Commerce Committee hearing to review the incident, which left thousands of travelers stranded, some overnight, and caused ripple delays around the globe.