Bungling Boaters Breach JFK

Authorities are investigating the case of three young boaters who wandered onto a runway at Kennedy International Airport after their raft washed ashore near the airport.

The boaters, a 21-year-old man and two 13-year-old boys, were on an inflatable fishing raft, but became lost after a rainstorm Sunday and floated into Jamaica Bay, authorities said.

"It got rough out there, and the waves started blowing the boat towards the airport," Joel Phaggoo, one of the lost trio, told WABC-TV.

They anchored off of an active runway and wandered on runways and taxiways before they walked to a police garage, where they told authorities they were lost.

"We are concerned about this matter and have launched an investigation, looking particularly at patrol procedures and supervision," said Alan Hicks, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport. He was not sure how long the three were wandering around.

The three were questioned by Port Authority police and released.

Another airport spokesman, Pasquale DiFulco, said the area where the boaters landed was a "secure area."

According to The New York Times, the incident highlights concerns about how to secure the perimeters of America's busiest airports, which are often in remote areas where attacker, possibly carrying shoulder-fired missiles, could position themselves close to where jets take off and land.

The Department of Homeland Security said in March that it had surveyed 80 airports to gauge security. It recently announced two other efforts to improve airport security.

In a security advisory issued last week, the department warned, "al Qaeda may attempt to modify common electronic items carried by air travelers for use as weapons in order to circumvent improved security screening."

The unusually specific alert is based on information from a recently captured al Qaeda operative that the terror group may be planning a new hijacking.

Earlier this month, the government suspended two programs that allow foreigners to transit U.S. airports without visas to catch connecting flights between international points.

The State Department said al Qaeda and other terrorism organizations had planned to use the programs as a way of getting access to flights to and from the United States.

Before the change, potential terrorists could have arrived in the United States without visas, thus eluding required checks against federal lists of terrorism suspects.

Federal agencies "have received specific, credible intelligence ... that certain terrorist organizations including al Qaeda have identified the visa and passport exemptions of those programs as a means to gain access to aircraft en route to and from the United States," State Department spokeswoman Jo-Anne Prokopowicz said.

She said the intelligence included information from both the FBI and the CIA.
Airlines were instructed not to allow layovers by travelers under the transit-without-visa or the international-to-international transit programs. Homeland Security agencies also were acting to increase security at airports and on airplanes that normally carry and process passengers under the programs, the statement said.

In 2001, 29.4 million people used JFK airport.