Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Saturday Morning News

Turmoil at Hartsfield Airport Result of Impatient Flyer

Aired November 17, 2001 - 08:31   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Authorities say it was all in the name of football. A man at Atlanta's Hartsfield Airport allegedly rushing to catch a flight yesterday to a college game ran right past security; and that breach left thousands of passengers grounded for hours.

CNN's Natalie Pawelski has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NATALIE PAWELSKI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Thousands of passengers milling around outside one of the world's busiest airports, evacuated and shut down for hours because of this -- a passenger who eluded security and ran down an up escalator in an effort, he later said, to retrieve a camera bag he left behind.

MAJOR M. LEE BROOKS, ATLANTA POLICE DEPARTMENT: So he returned to the terminal to try to find and locate that camera bag. When he came up the escalators to exit the transportation mall, when he went around the corner he saw all the lines at the checkpoint and his flight was leaving 10 minutes later so he didn't have time to wait in line so he went back down the escalators that he had came up.

PAWELSKI: Guards did not stop the man, a security official said, because they have no authority to touch a passenger. There was no evidence the man on the tape was armed or dangerous, but airport officials say, according to regulations issued after September 11, they had no choice. Someone had breached security, so they were required to evacuate the airport.

BENJAMIN DECOSTA, AIRPORT MANAGER: We would not be seeing the same thing if this happened three months ago.

PAWELSKI: Passengers waited for hours outside with what airport officials conceded was notable patience. Guards searched an eerily empty airport. Finally, after about four hours, passengers were let back inside. Everyone was put through another round of security screening. The intruder apparently came back inside with the others.

(on camera): The man who ran down the escalator was finally caught back in the airport, recognized by airline employees, who called police. He told authorities he didn't know they were looking for him. BROOKS: It's awful hard to believe that when you evacuate the world's busiest airport and you put everybody out on the curb and you're searching people as they come back in and you're going through the security measures that we went through today, it's hard to understand that someone just is not aware of what's going on.

PAWELSKI (voice-over): Airplanes returned to Atlanta's skies five hours after the whole mess began, on a day when hundreds of flights were canceled and more delayed. The ripple effects from one impatient intruder's actions were felt at already jumpy airports across the country.

Natalie Pawelski, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com