>>Man walks off after shoes show traces of explosives
Larry D. Hatfield and Ray Delgado, Chronicle Staff Writers
Wednesday, January 30, 2002
©2002 San Francisco Chronicle
URL: sfgate.com
A major security blunder forced the hurried evacuation of part of the United Airlines terminal at
San Francisco International Airport this morning when a man with possible traces of explosives on
his shoes walked away from a security checkpoint.
Airport and airline officials were at a loss to explain how the man, whose shoes were taken off for
inspection and then returned to him, was allowed to fade into the crowd without further checking.
"I'm sure they talked to him at the time, but not to the extent they should have, obviously," said
airport spokesman Ron Wilson. "We'd like to find him but we're going under the assumption that
we're not going to. It would have been a lot easier to look for a guy in stocking feet."
A security sweep of the terminal gates 61 to 89, which handle flights to New York, Washington,
D.C., Boston, Chicago and elsewhere, yielded nothing.
After being held outside the terminal for about an hour, passengers were let back in. Long security
lines started inching forward again more than two hours after the 7:15 a.m. incident started.
Passengers already on board some planes were taken off and rescreened, slowing the process
even further.
"They're going to have to rescreen all of these people," Wilson said. "It's obviously a logistical
nightmare."
The breach delayed at least 80 United flights, some of which were held on the ground at other
airports, said United spokesman Joe Hopkins at the airline's headquarters in Chicago.
American Airlines shares the North Terminal with United but spokesman Emilio Howell in Dallas
said none of the carrier's flights were affected.
Wilson said the incident started at 7:15 a.m. when a man in his 40s and wearing tennis shoes was
asked to remove his shoes at a security checkpoint, an increasingly common occurrence since a
man was discovered with explosives in his shoes on a Paris-to-Miami Delta flight last month.
Security personnel ran a cotton swab along the shoes to be tested in a chemical-detection
machine. The machine quickly analyzes the cotton swabs for nine different types of explosive
residues and rarely comes up positive.
But the swab that was run across the man's shoes did show traces of an unknown explosive
substance.
Wilson said there were at least two security blunders at that point that weren't immediately
explained: "The shoes were handed back to him and somehow he escaped."
Nor was there an explanation of why the evacuation was not ordered until nearly a half hour later,
after tower officials were notified and the Federal Aviation Administration ordered flights halted.
Wilson said as many as five planes already loaded may have left during that gap. "There may have
been some planes that were allowed to leave, but I'm pretty sure they left before the incident," he
said.
"There was a security breach," United's Hopkins said. "Apparently a guy with some kind of
residue on his shoe or shoes walked away."
He said that as security personnel were testing what might have been on the man's shoes, the man
walked into the crowd. "They couldn't find him, so they ordered the evacuation of the terminal."
As many as 5,000 people in the terminal and on planes held on the field were affected by the
evacuation.
Around 8:30 a.m., passengers were allowed back inside but the terminal quickly filled as people got
into security lines. Others were kept outside in the chilly January air.
"It's unfortunate that one individual can cause this madness," Wilson said.
"I'm just trying to get back home where it's warmer," said Larry Walsh, who was trying to return to
his home in Boston after attending an investors conference here. "Part of me is happy to see the
system work but when you're itching to get back home, it's a little disconcerting. No matter how
well you screen the airport, there's always the potential for a breach."
June Tagliere, of Grants Pass, Ore., was in a wheelchair and somewhat bewildered by the hubbub
as she and her son and daughter-in-law tried to get on a plane to Maui.
"I'm inexperienced in airport travel, so I don't know how to react," she said. "I'd rather be delayed
here than have something happen in the air."
Susan DeSalvo-Reed, of Napa, already was on her plane bound for New York when she and other
passengers were taken off to go through security again.
"I think that it makes people more fearful," she said of the incident and the increased airport
security. "It seems like a Third World country when you come to the airport with all the security
and the National Guard and camouflage. You'd think they would have pulled the guy aside. It's too
bad they lost the guy."
Wilson and Hopkins said the incident would interrupt air traffic for much of the day. "Little by
little, we'll get back to normal," Hopkins said.
Wilson, noting that the extremely sensitive security machine can detect trace amounts of
chemicals, said the explosive material detected could be fireworks residue, traces from dynamite on
a construction site, or even residue from nitroglycerin tablets used for heart conditions. <<
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