Schumer Calls For Changes At TSA After 11 People Walk Through Unstaffed Gate At JFK
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- After 11 people were able to walk through a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint at John F. Kennedy International Airport this week, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is pushing the agency to update its security procedures.
As WCBS 880's Mike Smeltz reported, Schumer said it just does not make any sense how 11 people were simply able to go through a security line at JFK this past Monday.
"This problem of leaving a gate undone means there's poor supervision," Schumer said.
The security line was left unattended because TSA workers were opening up a separate PreCheck lane. Schumer said such mistakes can be easily solved if the TSA follows recommendations laid out six months ago by the Department of Homeland Security.
Those recommendations include creating a single, unifying overseer of every department that has a role in airport security.
"Different people are in charge of different things, so no one has full responsibility," Schumer said.
When the gate went unstaffed around 6 a.m. Monday, three of the 11 people who passed through set off the metal detector. There was no agent present to perform further screening to determine why.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said TSA officials waited until 8 a.m. before notifying them about the breach. By that time, all the unchecked passengers were presumed to have boarded their flights and taken off.
The TSA said Monday that it is reviewing what happened and will be retraining and disciplining employees as they see fit.
