American Airlines flight 1671 departed Cancun and landed at JFK at 8:50pm last Friday with 76 passengers and six crew members. Approximately 20 passengers inadvertently exited through a door to the domestic gate. The security snafu came just two days after ISIS released a video threatening NY City with a terrorist attack.
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Meanwhile, a passenger aboard an global flight that touched down at Orlando worldwide Airport Monday afternoon said she witnessed a major lax in security protocols when she got off the plane. As of Sunday 144 passengers had returned for processing and an official told The Daily News that the remaining passengers were USA citizens. Some of them were erroneously led to the domestic departures area without having to go through immigration and customs. “The only signs we saw were baggage claim and exit”.
American said it is reviewing the matter and insists that all passengers on the flight would have been cross-checked against terror watch lists before boarding.
Representatives from American Airlines, the Transportation Safety Administration and U.S. Customs and Border Protection phoned passengers and ordered them back to JFK, the report said.
But a well-screened staff means nothing if passengers are able to bypass them, he said.
“I’m very concerned. That is a very unusual incident, but it is absolutely unacceptable”, he said.
For Americans traveling overseas, the process of going through customs when returning to the USA has always been viewed as something of a chore – a time-consuming task worthy of tips and tricks on ways to “beat” the long lines.
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A spokesman for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, part of the Department of Homeland Security, said the agency is “aware of and looking into the incident and is working with our counterparts to resolve it”.
