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[Adventurer]

Arrest made in Newark airport security breach

Airport's Security Breach 'Major Negligence'
. Slideshow:Newark Airport Security Breach .
Play Video Video:Video shows absent guard led to Newark airport breach AP .

AP � In this image made Thursday, Jan. 7, 2010 from a Sunday, Jan. 3 Transportation Security Administration �

By SAMANTHA HENRY and DAVID PORTER, Associated Press Writers Samantha Henry And David Porter, Associated Press Writers � 16 mins ago

NEWARK, N.J. � The man believed to have caused a security breach that resulted in major delays last weekend at Newark Liberty Airport when he took advantage of a guard's absence to sneak past a checkpoint and walk arm-in-arm with a woman was arrested Friday night at his home, authorities said.

Haisong Jiang, 28, of Piscataway was taken into custody at 7:30 p.m. Friday at his home, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said. He was being held late Friday night at the airport by Port Authority police, who arrested him. The Port Authority said in a statement that Jiang is being charged with defiant trespass, and that the charge was determined in coordination with Essex County prosecutors and federal officials.
Jiang is listed on the Rutgers Web site as a postdoctoral fellow in the school's biotechnology department.

"From every indication I've seen, everybody in there is good people," said Gene Wells, who lives next door to Jiang. "I've never had a problem with them."


A bystander waiting for an arriving passenger noticed the breach and told the guard. TSA officials then discovered that surveillance cameras at the security checkpoint had not recorded the breach and were forced to consult backup security cameras operated by Continental Airlines.

BREACH

[Reggie]

I cannot believe they went to this young man's house and arrested him when he obviously didn't highjack a plane or anything. What a ridiculous police state we've become, with police harrassing this guy who is trying to make something of himself while so many men in Newark are truly a menace to society.

[jvalmer]

The sad thing is that he's probably going to be deported back to China. Don't know if he would have gone back to China anyways after getting his PhD. But, I guess it will be China's gain.

[ytuque]

[Reggie]

I imagine there was a considerable financial impact, but I really blame that on the US government instead of this Chinese guy. I also blame the American public since we've become scared to the point that it really has become a mental health issue on the national level.

This overreaction is not an isolated occurance.

On Wednesday, F-15s were scrambled and a flight was diverted because a customer argued with a flight attendant about the storage of his carry-on bag.

Yesterday, there were two incidents. A flight was diverted when a male passenger harrassed a woman, then he was released after the woman didn't press charges. In the other incident, F-16s were scrambled because of a drunk passenger in the bathroom.

I do not understand why we need to send the Air Force out over customer service disputes and drunk passengers. For starters, the guy shouldn't have been let on the plane if he was drunk. If he wasn't drunk when he got on, the stewardesses shouldn't have kept serving him so many drinks. Either way, there is no excuse for the Department of Defense to have to go Defcon 1 over a guy taking a dump.

I bet the rest of the world reads this stuff and laughs at us, and rightfully so. I mean, we've become so paranoid a drunk person can't fart without the American public and our armed forces collectively shitting our pants. It looks like we have a long (and stinky) year ahead of us...

[Adventurer]

I am sorry, Reggie, but he knew there was a guard before. That means you should go through security not try to find a short cut to impress your girlfriend. I respect that he is an intelligent man. He knows security is important. You don't just bypass security. He caused so many travelers from all over the world a lot of inconvenience and it cost a lot of people time and money. He simply should have gone through security like a normal person. I am not saying he should be deported.

[Reggie]

I agree that he shouldn't have done what he did. I'm with you on that.

However, I still blame the US government and the TSA for what happened. Apparently, airport security at the Newark airport is on the "honor system" if they use unmanned nylon ribbons as security barriers. To be that lax and then shut down the airport when someone ducked the ribbon doesn't make any damn sense.

The Chinese guy actually exposed the TSA and the government for their fraud. American taxpayers have paid billions upon billions of dollars for airport security and all a foreigner has to do to breach security is duck under a ribbon??? The local Carmike Cinema has better security than that. The movie theater not only has a nylon ribbon, but whenever the guy who checks the tickets has to take a restroom break, one of the popcorn sellers rotates into his position until he comes back.

There has to be fraud with the air marshal system as well. On each of the flights where the Air Force sent fighter planes, there was only one passenger allegedly causing trouble. Any air marshal worth his salt should be able to handle that situation, but instead the Air Force, for whatever reason, sent two fighter jets each time. And why two fighter jets? Can't one fighter jet handle itself against a commercial passenger airplane?

It looks like Americans are having to pay a whole lot of money for all of this security BS, but somebody somewhere is pocketing our money, so we end up with unmanned ribbons for airport security and nonexistant air marshals.