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Screeners disciplined over security breach
©Associated Press
November 17, 2002
MIAMI -- Two screeners have been placed on paid leave after a security breach this week caused an evacuation of about 2,000 people at Miami International Airport and delayed 41 flights.
The two-hour evacuation of Concourses A through E was ordered Thursday after a review of a videotape showed two people entering a security checkpoint through the exit lane at Concourse B.
That review followed a complaint that one of the federally trained security screeners appeared to be asleep on the job.
The agency was still investigating the incident, and final disciplinary action could come next week, U.S. Transportation Security Administration agent George Perez said Saturday.
The screeners could get leave without pay or dismissal, said Ed Guevara, TSA director at the Miami airport.
"The review is in progress and we can't say anything until that is decided," he added.
Review of the videotape showed no one sneaked through the security checkpoint on the apparently sleepy screener's watch.
However, the tape showed another screener did not notice a man and a woman who walked out of the secure area of the concourse earlier, then walked right back into the secure area through the same exit.
"We don't know who these people are; we don't know what experience they have with airline travel," said Guevara.
The two passengers who breached security at Concourse B were never found, Guevara said.
The identities of the two screeners have not been released.
The TSA, created after the Sept. 11 attacks to oversee security took over screening at the Miami airport Nov. 5.
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