A security lane at JFK airport was left open and unattended by the Transportation Security Administration on Monday, allowing 11 travelers to stroll through without a screening, the New York Daily News reported.
A metal detector went off three times as the travelers walked through the lane at Jet Blue's Terminal 5 at 6:05 a.m. – but no one was operating the magnetometer, the x-ray machine or doing pat downs and secondary screening, the newspaper reported, citing unnamed law enforcement sources.
"What you have is 11 people, unscreened, who boarded unknown flights to unknown destinations," one source told the newspaper. "This is the failure of the TSA to do its job."
"The TSA tried to mitigate the situation by sending their screeners through the terminal in violation of all the protocols. The protocol says law enforcement is immediately notified."
Port Authority police, after being notified two hours after the incident, had surveillance photos of the travelers and flooded the airport, but couldn't find any of the them, the newspaper reported.
"Early reports indicate three passengers did not receive required secondary screening after alarming the walk through detector," the TSA said in a statement to the Daily News. "All personal carry-on bags receive required screening."
The TSA said it was "confident" the incident represented "no threat to the aviation transportation system."
"TSA works with a network of security layers both seen and unseen," the statement said. "Once our review is complete, TSA will discipline and retrain the employees as appropriate."
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.