Newark Liberty International Airport on Lockdown

Security breach reported at Newark Liberty International Airport. Terminal C is on lockdown. New federal security guidelines go into effect at midnight tonight. According to FOXNew, Terrminal B, next door to Terminal C will received full body scanners. See update 1-7-10 below.

Newark Liberty International airport is one of this country's busiest airports. The airport's Terminal B will receive 150 full body scanners, with 12 passenger screening lanes when modifications are completed.

New guidelines in effect tonight at midnight are specifically for passengers who have passed through countries that sponsor terrorism and/or are unfriendly to the U.S. Among these are Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabis, Somalia, Yemen, Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria.

Update 7:03 p.m. CDT:

Julie Banderas, FOXNews. closed out her segment saying that there are unconfirmed reports that someone exited a side door at Newark Liberty. Repeat: that is an unconfirmed report.

CNN and Reuters has reported the story with no other details.

Update 7:30 p.m. CDT:

The TSA says a person exited an external doorway into the "sterile" side of the airport. The airport remains on lockdown.

Update 8:10 p.m. CDT:

CBC News, via WABC and CNN, reports that "a man went through an exit at a checkpoint." New Jersey police and the New York Port authority are looking for the man and reviewing video from suveillance cameras. No other information available.

Update 10:05 p.m. CDT:

Not much new. This from a New Jersey website:

A man who walked into a secure area triggered a terminal-wide lockdown at Newark Liberty International Airport tonight, grounding outgoing planes and forcing hundreds of passengers to await rescreening, transportation authorities said.

Transportation Security Administration and airline officials said an unidentified man walked through the wrong side of a checkpoint exit around 5:20 p.m. TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis said authorities were reviewing video from airport cameras at the terminal, and were not sure whether the man went out the wrong way and then went back, or never went through screening.

"A male individual was observed walking the wrong way down an exit lane in Terminal C at Newark Liberty Airport," Davis said. "TSA was notified and we immediately halted screening at the security checkpoints in Terminal C and worked with the Port Authority to pull the surveillance tapes in the area to determine what transpired and see if we could identify the individual in question."

The individual had not been located by late tonight, the TSA said.

Update 1-4-09 2:15 p.m. CDT:

The man see exiting the wrong way through a security checkpoint has not been located. The airport is back on schedule today. Here is a concern from one of the passengers:

"We checked in about 5:30 p.m. and got through security at C1 by 6:10 p.m. ... It was 7 p.m. when we were stopped at the entrance of C3," wrote Summit resident Cheryl Railey in an e-mail. She and her daughter waited several hours before rescheduling their flight to Madrid. "'There's something really weird about the delay, and how they didn't immediately stop someone so obviously going the wrong way."

Update 1-4-09 3:50 p.m. CDT:

The latest fro nj.com:

Someone picking up a passenger told an officer guarding the exit that he thought he saw a man enter through the doors Sunday, TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis said. TSA reviewed surveillance video before sweeping the airport, she said.

The video confirmed the man had entered through the exit, and officials made passengers leave the terminal and be rescreened.

The video also showed the man leaving the terminal through another exit about 20 minutes later, Davis said, although it was unclear when authorities learned the man had left.

The officer responsible for the breached area has been reassigned to non-screening functions during the investigation, Davis said.

Update 1-7-10:
Today we learn that a man doubled back the wrong way though a secure area to give a woman "one last goodbye kiss." That's what shutdown the airport:

A videotape of the Newark incident shows the man embracing a woman at the C-1 security checkpoint before she passes through passenger screening, the Star-Ledger newspaper of New Jersey said, citing unnamed security officials who have viewed the tape.

The man, who was not a passenger, walks past a spot where a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officer should have been stationed to move closer to the woman, the paper said.

The woman holds up a rope meant to keep unscreened people out of the secure area so that the man can passes underneath, and they walk hand-in-hand toward the boarding area before disappearing from view, the paper reported.

The man left the airport and has not been identified. The TSA officer who was working that area has been placed on administrative leave.

The airliner that went down in Shanksville, PA on 9-1-01 departed from Newport Liberty International Airport.

Related:
Newark Liberty Airport Kiss Blamed for Shutdown