Security Scare Closes Newark Airport Terminal

Screening resumes, but man who entered through exit still at large
By Marie Morris,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 3, 2010 9:19 PM CST
Updated Jan 3, 2010 11:37 PM CST
Security Scare Closes Newark Airport Terminal
Passengers fill the terminal after a security breach shut down Terminal C at Newark Liberty International Airport. Authorities are searching for a man who walked through a screening checkpoint exit.   (AP Photo/Rich Schultz)

A Newark Liberty Airport terminal has reopened after a man used a screening exit to enter the facility, setting off a massive manhunt and lockdown. The man had not been located as of around midnight ET. Screening of passengers in Terminal C, which mostly handles Continental traffic, resumed at 10:30, about 5 hours after the breach, reports the Newark Star-Ledger.

Passengers who had already boarded were required to deplane and go through security again. It was not clear whether the man who eluded security had already been screened, CNN reports. "A male individual was observed walking the wrong way down an exit lane," said a TSA spokeswoman. Thousands of stalled holiday travelers filled the terminal while others waited on the tarmac as the situation caused serious arrival delays. Said one traveler: "It’s total chaos."
(More Newark stories.)

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