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Sunday, July 11, 2004 - Page updated at 12:00 a.m.
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The Times collected 100 media reports of airport-security breaches since fall 2002, when TSA screeners took over. Screeners say that's a fraction of the incidents, and most are never disclosed.
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View breaches by state:
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Virginia
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| Airport |
Breach description |
| Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Arlington County |
A female passenger who was supposed to be waiting for secondary screening, walked away from a checkpoint. Officials evacuated the terminal and rescreened all 200 passengers. K-9 teams and law -enforcement officials searched the secure side of the concourse. The woman was not found. [2/10/2004]
Source: Airport Security Report
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| Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Arlington County |
A screener noticed a suspicious item while X-raying carry-on baggage. Security staff failed to intervene before the passenger retrieved the bag and left the checkpoint. Pier B was evacuated and closed for an hour. Passengers were rescreened, and ten departing flights were delayed. [4/16/2003]
Source: Airport Security Report
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| Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Arlington County |
A woman set off an alarm during screening but kept walking toward the concourse gate after being told to wait for a security check. About 1,000 US Airways passengers were evacuated from the terminal and were re-screened. Nothing suspicious was found. [11/22/2002]
Source: Airport Security Report
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| Norfolk Int'l Airport |
A woman who set off a walk-through metal detector and was waiting to be screened with a hand wand left the checkpoint and headed toward the gates before being rescreened. TSA officials closed the concourse, rescreened passengers and brought in bomb-sniffing dogs to check the airport. The incident delayed several flights and caused some passengers to miss their flights. The woman was not found. [11/17/2002]
Source: Airport Security Report
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| Norfolk Int'l Airport |
A screener X-raying luggage spotted an image that appeared to be a handgun, but security staff grabbed the wrong bag. The mistake was noticed in moments, but the passenger with the suspicious bag had left for the boarding gates. The concourse was closed, and all passengers, including some who had boarded their flights, were rescreened. No weapon was found. Passengers on two arriving flights were briefly kept on their planes, and several departing flights were delayed. [12/20/2002]
Source: Airport Security Report
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| Norfolk Int'l Airport |
A woman who set off a walk-through metal detector and was waiting to be screened with a hand wand left the checkpoint and headed toward the boarding gates. Officials closed the concourse, rescreened passengers and brought in bomb-sniffing dogs to check the airport. The incident delayed several fights and caused some passengers to miss their flights. The woman was not found. [11/17/2002]
Source: Airport Security Report
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| Washington Dulles Int'l Airport, Sterling |
Two Middle Eastern men with straight razors and a utility knife in their bags got past the security checkpoint. When they were stopped, they were found to be carrying $10,000 in cash. TSA agents confiscated the items at the boarding-gate screening area. American Airlines allowed both men to board flight 144, but the flight crew refused to take off until the men were removed from the aircraft. The flight was delayed for an hour before the men were removed. They were rescreened and placed on another flight to Los Angeles. The men had Virginia state identifications but were not U.S. citizens. They claimed to be Iranian nationals but were not carrying passports. [2/08/2003]
Source: Airport Security Report
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| Washington Dulles Int'l Airport, Sterling |
In a letter to the editor of the Washington Post, Steve Brewer of Lorton, VA., noted that he had been stopped earlier in the month at a regional airport in Colorado because his olive-drab parachute bag tested positive for explosives. Lorton had carried the bag with him on numerous overseas missions as a Marine Corps combat-mission engineer. But just four days before the Colorado trip, ""the same bag flew unimpeded on a United Airlines flight out of Dulles International Airport, the origin of American Airlines Flight 77 on Sept. 11, 2001,"" Brewer wrote. [April 2004]
Source: The Washington Post, letter to the editor
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