Passengers Re-Screened After BWI Security Breach

LINTHICUM, Md. - Authorities are investigating how a knife slipped past a security checkpoint at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, causing the delay of more than 35 flights early Monday while police evacuated a section of the terminal and re-screened hundreds of passengers.

The re-screening process took about four hours and led to the recovery of a number of "prohibited items," including a knife, Transportation Security Authority spokeswoman Chris Rhatigan said.

"Is there a knife loose somewhere in the system? No. We believe the second layer of security kicked in and we intercepted the knife in question," Rhatigan said.

A baggage screener spotted an X-ray image of a knife in a carry-on bag about 5:20 a.m. at the security checkpoint outside Pier D, airport spokesman Jonathan Dean said.

The owner walked away before the bag could be examined by hand, prompting Maryland Transportation authorities to issue a red alert and empty the entire tier of passengers. Police searched the pier for about 40 minutes before reopening the pier and re-screening passengers.

Dean said airport operations returned to normal between 9 a.m. and 9:30 a.m.

Rhatigan said it is not unusual for screeners to find prohibited items such as a knife at security checkpoints. For example, 58 knives were confiscated at BWI last Monday. In February, authorities confiscated more than 155,000 knives nationwide, she said.

Why passengers attempt to carry prohibited items such as knives remains something of a mystery.

"As far as we can tell, the vast majority were inadvertent errors," Rhatigan said.

Arrest statistics were unavailable, she said.

Although spotting such knives is not unusual, authorities were concerned about the apparent breakdown in procedure that allowed it to get beyond the checkpoint Monday.

Checkpoint security is best described in layers, authorities say.

The first layer is the four to five person team at the checkpoint lanes. One member typically examines passenger boarding passes and directs them to place personal items on the carrier trays. A second person examines items on a monitor as they pass through the scanner. A third person stands by with a magnetometer wand and a fourth person examines selected bags by hand.

The federal security director and airport officials will investigate how the team lost track of the suspected bag and its owners forcing the activation of the second security layer - the evacuation of the pier and search.

Meanwhile, two screeners will undergo remedial training, which is standard operating procedure when there is a security breech, Rhatigan said.

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)