Airport Hijinks No Laughing Matter For Board Member
DFW AIRPORT (CBSDFW.COM) - A new video making the rounds of the Internet shows two guys goofing around after hours at DFW International Airport.
What concerns some is that no one seems to do anything to stop them.
It's meant to be funny, but not everyone is laughing.
For most travelers, airports aren't really a fun place. But the video, posted Monday to the video sharing website Vimeo, shows two guys having some fun late at night in an empty terminal.
Photographer Joe Ayala and friend Larry Chen say they were stranded after their connecting flight out of DFW was cancelled. So they made a go of it -- racing wheelchairs and doing stuff some travelers only dream of doing.
It was all under the watchful eye of DFW's security cameras, but there is no sign of airport police.
CBS 11 showed the video to Taylor O'Donovan, who was catching a flight to Detroit. "I can't believe there wasn't some kind of security or someone walking around at all to even see that."
Aviation security experts who have seen the video say it doesn't show any major security concerns because the two guys were ticketed passengers who had already been screened by the TSA.
DFW airport board member Betty Culbreath says while it may have been a prank, it sent the wrong message. "It's not funny. It's not going to happen again as far as I'm concerned. It should not have happened because it gives the perception the airport is sitting out there unguarded and that's why I was concerned, and am still concerned."
At one point in the video, one of the men enters the kitchen of Pappadeux's Restaurant in Terminal E and pours himself what appears to be beer.
Airport spokesman David Magana says the men didn't have permission to be in there. He acknowledges the video raises questions of how well the airport secures businesses, and says they are looking into it.
Traveler Frank Myers wasn't amused either. "If this were all staged on a set, I'd be laughing right now. That's staged in a public arena, and they're costing money for us travelers, and I don't care for it at all."
The airport says it's too soon to determine whether they'll file criminal charges against the men.
A spokesman for TSA says he hadn't seen the video, and couldn't comment.
CBS 11 tried contacting Ayala & Chen for this story, as well as the operator of the restaurant, but were unable to reach them.
American Airlines, the airline that runs most of the gates the men were playing around at, declined comment.
