Under pressure to prevent people from sneaking onto runways and planes at major U.S. airports, authorities are cracking down — not on the intruders who slip through perimeter gates or jump over fences, but on the release of information about the breaches.
A year after an Associated Press investigation first revealed persistent problems with airports’ outer defenses, breaches remain as frequent as ever — about once every 10 days — despite some investments to fortify the nation’s airfields. As Americans wait in ever-longer security screening lines inside terminals, new documents show dozens more incidents happening outside perimeters than airports have disclosed.
At the same time, leaders at some airports and the U.S. Transportation Security Administration are saying some of the 345 incidents AP found shouldn’t count as security breaches, even when intruders got deep into secure areas.
Was it a perimeter security breach in March 2015 when a woman walked past a vehicle exit gate at San Francisco International Airport and onto the tarmac, where she tried to flag down a jet for a trip home to Guatemala? No it was not, said the airport and TSA officials, who also tried to suppress information about the case.
In another case, the AP found that people climbed over or crashed cars through security fencing around Chicago’s two main airports more than authorities have disclosed. In an instance first reported last year, a man tossed a bike over a fence at O’Hare and made it inside a passenger terminal.
In all, there were 12 intrusions from 2004 through mid-February at O’Hare and Midway. Chicago’s Department of Aviation cited five breaches when AP first asked last year. Federal records revealed another four. A department spokeswoman would not explain the discrepancy.
There were four breaches in 2015 — the most for any year since 2006.
TSA cites security concerns
After discussing intrusions openly at first, officials at several airports and the TSA started withholding details, arguing the release could expose vulnerabilities.
Following a two-year legal struggle with the TSA, AP has now used newly released information to create the most comprehensive public tally of perimeter security breaches. The 345 incidents took place at 31 airports that handle three-quarters of U.S. passenger travel. And that’s an undercount, because several airports refused to provide complete information.
The count shows that an intruder broke through the security surrounding one of those airports on average every 13 days from the beginning of 2004 through mid-February; starting in 2012, the average has been every 9.5 days. Many intruders scaled barbed wire-topped fences or walked past vehicle checkpoints. Others crashed cars into chain link and concrete barriers.
The large airports with the most known incidents serve San Francisco (41), Las Vegas (30), Philadelphia (30) and Los Angeles (26). New York’s JFK ranked 10th with 12 breaches.
Airport officials point out that no case involved a known terrorist plot. Police reports suggest many trespassers were disoriented, intoxicated or delusional. Some came on skateboards and bikes, while others commandeered vehicles on the tarmac. One man got into a helicopter cockpit and was preparing to take off.
Five intruders brought knives and one a loaded gun.
Over the past year, the TSA and airports have been focused less on perimeter security than on stopping weapons that passengers or baggage handlers try to sneak onto planes.
“It doesn’t surprise me that people sometimes try to jump over fences to see what they can get away with,” said TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger. “The question is: What’s your ability to detect it and … what might you do to mitigate that happening in the future?”
Airport officials would not discuss how much they are spending on fortifying perimeters. Some that added security in the past year saw fewer intruders, others had more.
Altogether, there were at least 39 breaches nationwide in 2015, which also was the annual average from 2012 through 2015. The low was 34 in 2013 and the high 42 in 2012, when incidents spiked after several years hovering around 20 breaches.
Aviation security consultant Jeff Price said the TSA and airports have not done enough to address gaps in perimeter security.
“The straight-up honest answer as to why it’s not being vigorously addressed? Nothing bad’s happened. Yet,” Price said.
Airport officials stress that the miles of fences, gates and guardhouses protecting their properties are secure and say many intruders are quickly caught.
Perimeters are not “a gaping vulnerability,” said Christopher Bidwell, vice president of security at the advocacy group Airports Council International-North America. When intruders are quickly caught, “their ability to do anything nefarious isn’t really there,” Bidwell said. “It’s being neutralized because they are actively being surveilled.”
But video cameras and guards don’t always spot intruders.
After eluding security and reaching parked planes at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, one intruder warned an airport worker in December that he “better not say” anything. Authorities never found the man, though they did arrest three others at different times in 2015, including one man who managed to drive his vehicle in with a convoy entering the airfield during a visit by Pope Francis.
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Here’s a look at some of those breaches, as described by airports or documents from the TSA:
Would-be stowaway at JFK: In June 2015, a 17-year-old jumped a fence and was caught near an area where planes load at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. He asked one airport employee who stopped him if he could take a selfie. The boy told police he wanted to stow away in an airplane flying to Morocco, his home.
Hailing a plane in SF: In March 2015, a 42-year-old woman walked around a vehicle exit gate at San Francisco International Airport, and reached a cargo building where people in the air traffic control tower saw her waving her arms in an attempt to stop a plane. She later told authorities that she planned to stow away on a flight to Guatemala, to see her husband and child, much like a teenager who survived a flight from California to Hawaii in 2014. AP counted this as a perimeter security breach, though officials with the airport and the TSA insisted it was not.
Guns and whiskey in Philly: In April 2012, a woman who had just tried to steal a truck carrying $1 million worth of Jack Daniels whiskey got through a perimeter gate at Philadelphia International Airport and boarded a small jet. She was able to grab the gun of a responding officer, pointing it at his head with her finger on the trigger before he disarmed her. The gate guard’s boss was disciplined because the guard was not paying attention.
Missing intruder in NYC: In December 2015, a worker at JFK asked a man walking near where aircraft are loaded and unloaded if he had an ID badge. The man said he was looking for the subway, warned the worker with an expletive not to report him and walked off across an airplane taxiway. Responding officers looked for the man near Terminal 8, but did not find him.
A slight delay in San Diego: In July 2015, a man scaled two perimeter fences and ran onto a San Diego International Airport runway, halting inbound and outbound planes for 7 minutes before he was arrested.
Armed with knives in Minneapolis: In February 2015, a man in a hoodie jumped a perimeter fence and was arrested near a gate after crossing the airfield at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Authorities found a knife on him. In March 2011 at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, a man carrying a backpack with two steak knives jumped a fence and was stopped near a passenger gate.
Not leaving Las Vegas: In April 2009, a man who appeared to be intoxicated climbed over a gate topped with barbed wire at McCarran International Airport, climbed into a helicopter and began preparing for a flight before the helicopter owner confronted him. He was arrested for criminal trespassing. Federal prosecutors declined to take the case.
Tractor, meet jet: In January 2007, a man climbed over a fence at the Las Vegas airport then stole a tractor, crashed it through a security gate, hit a corporate jet and then, as authorities chased him, drove into a ditch. He was injured when the tractor rolled.
An LA ladder climber: In February 2015, a man approached a Korean Airlines employee at Los Angeles International Airport and said his wife was in the car and they were looking for their way out. He got over the fence by taking a ladder that an employee was using on the outside to set up better lighting at a cargo facility.
Associated Press
