Cops Arrest Suspect in Newark Airport Breach

Jan. 8, 2010— -- Police have arrested a New Jersey man they believe breached security at Newark Liberty International Airport last Sunday, prompting hours of delays.

Haisong Jiang, 28, of Piscataway, N.J., was arrested around 7:30 p.m., according to the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, and officials plan to charge him with "defiant trespass" over the Jan. 3 incident.

"The charges were determined in coordination with the Essex County Prosecutor's Office and federal officials," according to the agency's written statement.

Jiang will not face federal charges over the incident, sources said.

After Port Authority police arrested Jiang at his home, he told detectives he was the person shown in a video of the security breach, sources added.

Detectives tracked down Jiang by culling through a list of possible suspects.

Video: Suspect Breached Security, Hugged Woman

Video surveillance footage released Thursday suggested that the man who caused the security breach intentionally walked through an exit into a secure area of the airport to hug a woman. The maneuver caused hours of delays for thousands of people.

The video, released by the office of Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., showed an unidentified man standing for several minutes near Checkpoint 1 in the Newark airport's Terminal C, apparently waiting for a woman at around 5:20 p.m. The Transportation Security Administration officer assigned to the post appeared to be aware of the man's presence, and at one point, the officer instructed the man to move back.

A few minutes later, however, the TSA guard inexplicably got up from his podium and walked away for about one minute. That's all the time it took for the man to sneak through the exit lane, embrace the woman and walk off into the secure concourse.

Lautenberg cheered the arrest.

"I applaud the Port Authority Police Department for working diligently to make this arrest," he said in a written statement. "With this arrest, law enforcement will be able to take a closer look into how and why this incident occurred and make sure that it never happens again."

It appeared the man meant no harm and merely wanted to follow the woman into the secure part of the concourse to say goodbye. He was seen elsewhere on surveillance video leaving the airport about 20 minutes after he breached security.

The TSA has placed the guard on administrative leave.

"TSA initiated a review of the specific incident and local incident response plans," the TSA's Ann Davis said.

"The surveillance video from Newark Liberty Airport clearly shows that a TSA officer's actions led to the Sunday incident," Davis added. "We will use this hard lesson to reinforce the sharp focus and tight discipline at all our stations across the country and ensure we maintain the public trust."

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The video images came from a backup set of cameras owned by Continental Airlines. The airport cameras that should have recorded the breach were not working properly. The TSA failed to inform the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey about the faulty cameras, which had been working improperly since Dec. 28.

It is TSA's responsibility to recognize the camera breakdown, but the Port Authority says TSA did not inform it about the faulty cameras until 6:40 p.m., at which point the TSA sought images from a redundant set of cameras owned by Continental.

"TSA has met with the Port Authority, who is responsible for the operation of the surveillance cameras, and will work with them to ensure consistent performance and confirm operational readiness," said Davis.

Newark Security Breach 'Unacceptable'

Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., called the two-hour gap between the breach and the TSA's confirmation "unacceptable."

"This simple breakdown not only cost precious response time, it also prevented authorities from tracking the suspect and ensuring he was not a threat," Menendez said.

It took until 7:45 p.m. for the concourse to be emptied and a subsequent four-hour-long security sweep to begin. During that time, departing planes were delayed and arriving jets had nowhere to park, leaving passengers stranded on the runway waiting to deplane.

The redundant cameras have been in place since the pre-9/11 era when the airlines were responsible for their own security. Continental provided the tapes to the TSA as soon as the airline became aware the TSA wanted them. The inoperable cameras caused a two-hour gap between the security breach and when the TSA was able to confirm it.

Newark was one of the airports from which one of the four jets used in the Sept. 11 terror attacks took off more than eight years ago.

Once Sunday's breach was confirmed by TSA after 7 p.m., security screening stopped as an attempt was made to locate the man who had passed through the wrong door. Moments later, it was decided to remove all passengers from Terminal C -- the airport's busiest -- so that officers could search the concourse and every passenger could be rescreened.

It took several hours to sweep the empty Newark concourse Sunday night. Passengers were allowed to go back through security just before midnight.

"We had to take action that unfortunately inconvenienced a hell of a lot of people," Davis said.

Continental says more than 100 flights were impacted, and though the operation is "looking good" today, there are still some international flights that were behind schedule Monday afternoon.

"We're going to look at the timeline to see how we could have done better," Davis said.

These kinds of episodes happen on occasion, the TSA says. In the week that began Dec. 14, the agency says there were 37 incidents at airports across the country that involved a checkpoint closure, terminal evacuation or a sterile area breach.

Sunday's breach at Newark comes as the TSA implements new security procedures for passengers flying into the U.S. from countries tied to terrorism, in the wake of the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a plane headed to Detroit.

Passengers on flights arriving from Paris and Mumbai told ABC News they were frisked at their departure gates, and every piece of their carry-on luggage was searched.

"You had to take off your jacket, you had to take off your purse, they went through your purse and did the whole body thing," one passenger said.