TR4A
1st Mar 2002, 20:02
Thousands delayed by breach at O'Hare
By Robert McCoppin Daily Herald Staff Writer
Several thousand airline passengers were delayed at O'Hare International Airport Thursday night after it was discovered a metal detector to screen passengers was unplugged, officials said.
About 5 p.m., a screener in Terminal 3 working for Argenbright Security under new federal supervision noticed the machine, called a magnetometer, was not working, American Airlines spokeswoman Mary Frances Fagan said.
After checking a videotape, Fagan said, screeners concluded the detector had been accidentally unplugged for four minutes and allowed nine passengers to go through without being checked for weapons.
Under the new federal zero-tolerance policy for such security lapses, by 5:20 p.m. the entire terminal was ordered cleared, and bomb-sniffing dogs were used to sweep the terminal, O'Hare spokeswoman Monique Bond said.
All the passengers in the terminal were ordered to be rescreened. Concourses H and K reopened about 6:30 p.m., and L and G re-opened about 7 p.m.
Terminal 3 serves American and Delta airlines, which had delays of two to three hours.
Robert Conte of Los Angeles was among a planeload of passengers pulled off their American Airlines fight just before departure. They were forced to the back of a mass of thousands of people who filled the front ticket terminal. It took Conte four hours to get back through security to a gate, only to be told his flight had left.
"American did absolutely nothing to inform anybody," he said.
When told the problem was caused by an unplugged metal detector, he said: "That's absolutely outrageous. That was a total overreaction."
Another passenger, Jason Nocita of Omaha, Neb., who was delayed more than eight hours, agreed.
"I don't think we should have to suffer because of it," Nocita said. "If they don't have the resources to do security, that's not my problem."
Another passenger, who did not give his name, was delayed in Los Angeles for three hours Thursday morning on his way to Frankfurt, Germany, because of a similar problem, only to arrive at O'Hare and be delayed again.
Some departing flights were held up awaiting their passengers, and incoming flights were held up until police had checked the entire terminal. About 75 flights were delayed, Fagan said.
The airlines should have flights back on schedule by this morning, Fagan said.
Bond said the metal detector was malfunctioning somehow, but she could not confirm the detector was unplugged. She said federal supervisors will review video to determine how the incident happened.
If the machine was unplugged, it would be the third time recently an airport metal detector had been discovered unplugged, after similar incidents in Los Angeles Thursday morning and Boston's Logan Airport earlier in February.
The new U.S. Transportation Security Administration took over security supervision Feb. 17 and put Federal Aviation Administration personnel in place as interim supervisors until a permanent security director can be named, Bond said.
But the same security companies and many of the same screeners are on the job as when four planes were hijacked from Boston, Newark, N.J., and Washington, D.C., and crashed on Sept. 11 last year.
Breach: Some flights waited for passengers who were delayed
By Robert McCoppin Daily Herald Staff Writer
Several thousand airline passengers were delayed at O'Hare International Airport Thursday night after it was discovered a metal detector to screen passengers was unplugged, officials said.
About 5 p.m., a screener in Terminal 3 working for Argenbright Security under new federal supervision noticed the machine, called a magnetometer, was not working, American Airlines spokeswoman Mary Frances Fagan said.
After checking a videotape, Fagan said, screeners concluded the detector had been accidentally unplugged for four minutes and allowed nine passengers to go through without being checked for weapons.
Under the new federal zero-tolerance policy for such security lapses, by 5:20 p.m. the entire terminal was ordered cleared, and bomb-sniffing dogs were used to sweep the terminal, O'Hare spokeswoman Monique Bond said.
All the passengers in the terminal were ordered to be rescreened. Concourses H and K reopened about 6:30 p.m., and L and G re-opened about 7 p.m.
Terminal 3 serves American and Delta airlines, which had delays of two to three hours.
Robert Conte of Los Angeles was among a planeload of passengers pulled off their American Airlines fight just before departure. They were forced to the back of a mass of thousands of people who filled the front ticket terminal. It took Conte four hours to get back through security to a gate, only to be told his flight had left.
"American did absolutely nothing to inform anybody," he said.
When told the problem was caused by an unplugged metal detector, he said: "That's absolutely outrageous. That was a total overreaction."
Another passenger, Jason Nocita of Omaha, Neb., who was delayed more than eight hours, agreed.
"I don't think we should have to suffer because of it," Nocita said. "If they don't have the resources to do security, that's not my problem."
Another passenger, who did not give his name, was delayed in Los Angeles for three hours Thursday morning on his way to Frankfurt, Germany, because of a similar problem, only to arrive at O'Hare and be delayed again.
Some departing flights were held up awaiting their passengers, and incoming flights were held up until police had checked the entire terminal. About 75 flights were delayed, Fagan said.
The airlines should have flights back on schedule by this morning, Fagan said.
Bond said the metal detector was malfunctioning somehow, but she could not confirm the detector was unplugged. She said federal supervisors will review video to determine how the incident happened.
If the machine was unplugged, it would be the third time recently an airport metal detector had been discovered unplugged, after similar incidents in Los Angeles Thursday morning and Boston's Logan Airport earlier in February.
The new U.S. Transportation Security Administration took over security supervision Feb. 17 and put Federal Aviation Administration personnel in place as interim supervisors until a permanent security director can be named, Bond said.
But the same security companies and many of the same screeners are on the job as when four planes were hijacked from Boston, Newark, N.J., and Washington, D.C., and crashed on Sept. 11 last year.
Breach: Some flights waited for passengers who were delayed