D/FW AIRPORT — Christmas Day brought delays for travelers at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport after a security breach at a checkpoint.
The airport mobilized its command post while officers searched the terminals for a passenger described as an elderly woman.
The Transportation Security Administration said agents spotted something suspicious when she went through a body scanner. But by the time they attempted to pull her aside for additional screening, the woman had already moved on into the terminal.
"That's kind of scary, especially if she was supposed to be stopped and she just kept on going, and you don't know what she was doing," said passenger Mary Spoonemore.
TSA described it as a minor incident, but it nevertheless sparked a manhunt throughout the entire airport.
Photos of the elusive woman were distributed to gate agents while officers held dozens of flights to search aircraft.
The security breach delayed more than 100 flights coming in and out of D/FW on Christmas Day. Some passengers were delayed as much as two hours.
Julia Knypinski's had to wait an extra 30 minutes for her mother's scheduled flight to arrive. "I think it's crazy they're so tight on security around here, yet something like that can happen out of the blue," she said.
Agents emphasized that the passenger did nothing wrong, and likely didn't even know security had flagged her.
Yet after hours of searching, agents still weren't able to find the mystery woman.
"In the past, at my age, we'd worry about the weather slowing us down and not security," said air traveler Roland Boney. "Now you have both."
A major winter storm looks to create even more havoc with air travel across the country tomorrow, when airports will be much busier with travelers returning from a Christmas holiday.
Delta Air Lines canceled 500 flights nationwide on Saturday, including several in and out of D/FW Airport. That follows the cancelation of hundreds of flights on Friday.
The biggest problem is at Delta's Atlanta hub, where snow fell on Christmas Day.
United and Continental are warning they expect cancellations and delays at their hubs at Washington Dulles and Newark airports on Sunday.
There's already several inches of snow stretching from Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee into the Carolinas and the Virginias.
The National Weather Service is predicting another six to 10 inches of snow in the Washington area starting Monday, as well as snow in New York and Boston.
E-mail
jbetz@wfaa.com
