Security breach at Newark airport investigated

NEWARK, New Jersey (Reuters) - Officials searched for clues on Monday into a security breach at Newark Liberty International Airport that prompted a massive shutdown during the hectic holiday weekend that experts said was unavoidable given heightened concern over a potential attack.

The man, who has neither been found nor identified, walked the wrong way through a security checkpoint at 5:20 p.m. (2220 GMT) on Sunday at the busy New York City-area airport.

Officials cleared Terminal C, rescreened thousands of passengers, conducted a full security sweep of the concourse and grounded all flights for about six hours.

Airport surveillance tapes showed the man, who appeared to be Asian, leaving the terminal about 20 minutes after he entered a secure area via an exitway without being screened, said Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Ann Davis on Monday.

The exitway was well-marked with signs warning not to enter, she said. The man was seen on the tapes leaving via a different exit than the one he entered, she said.

"He has not been located," she said.

U.S. airports were already at heightened security levels since a botched attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound flight on December 25 by a Nigerian man who boarded in Amsterdam. U.S. authorities alleged he smuggled explosives in his underwear and had ties to al Qaeda.

"WE'RE MUCH MORE JUMPY"

Given the Christmas Day incident, the wide shutdown at Newark was inevitable, security experts said.

"If something had gone wrong, the necks of the airport administrators are going to be on the line," said Paul Bracken, a professor of security policy at Yale University.

"We're much more jumpy," he said. "If it hadn't been for the context of the (alleged) al Qaeda terrorist, I think they would have swept it under the carpet."

Flight delays late Sunday continued into on Monday, although security lines were moving normally, officials said.

Thousands of passengers were rescreened following the security breach on Sunday, a busy travel day as many people were returning home following the New Year's Day holiday weekend. Witnesses described the scene at Terminal C as chaotic.

Grounding all flights at the terminal for several hours was an overreaction after the recriminations inspired by the Christmas Day incident, said Martin Pollner, a former director for law enforcement for the U.S. Treasury Department.

"What they did was to overcompensate so no one would point the finger as they did in the other circumstance," he said.

Critics ask how the Nigerian suspect could have boarded the Christmas Day flight without raising alarms when U.S. and British authorities had been warned about him, he paid cash and did not check luggage for an international flight.

Experts noted the TSA, the U.S. agency in charge of airport security, is a relatively new, inexperienced agency with a large staff of screeners who are not highly trained.

Some suggested adopting a European-style system with screening at individual gates, rather than entire terminals, which could help contain a breach but be costly to implement.

Adding to the traveling hassles for passengers, air travelers from Nigeria, Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and nine other countries will face full-body pat downs before boarding under new TSA security screening procedures that took effect on Monday.