JFK Gate-Crasher, Gunman Still at Large

The man who crashed through a security checkpoint Thursday at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport remains at large, nearly 24 hours after the incident.

Transportation Security Administration officials searched in vain for the man, who threw one of the world's largest travel hubs into chaos, on flights that landed in Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Palm Beach, Salt
Lake City and San Diego.

The five flights were singled out because they shut their doors and began takeoff just after the security breach was announced at JFK, TSA spokesman Christopher White said.

"No specific intelligence indicat[ed] the suspect was on board one of the flights," TSA White told the Associated Press. "But there was the small likelihood that the individual could have gotten on a flight."

Meanwhile, a man was shot and killed in the airport's parking lot early this morning. "Police are still searching for the gunman," reports Newsday.

And travelers continued to lash out at Delta Air Lines employees, who sent JFK's terminal #3 into a near-riot yesterday, after announcing that planes would be taking off immediately -- despite a thousand or more fliers being stuck behind security checkpoints.

"After waiting with the mob at the Delta for two hours and being told that all flights would be held, we were told that all flights were departing on time with or without their passengers," one traveler reports in the comments here. "The
Delta attendants at check-in were uninformed, uninterested, unhelpful, and disdainful of the passengers."

"Hundreds of us were forced to stand outside in the freezing cold and wind for nearly an hour... with no explanation or information. This was especially awful for all of the families who had small children and elderly people. No attention was given to all of the people waiting and wondering what was going on," another flier tells our sister blog, 27BStroke6.

A third writes:

*I was at the airport during the entire chaotic event -- I arrived around 4:30 to Delta terminal 3, checked in at the kiosk and got online at the security checkpoint. Minutes later, the line stopped moving, a woman tried to get a Delta employee's attention by saying that her flight was about to leave, and she responded with
"no one's going anywhere, all flights at all aiports have been grounded." *

This wasn't true, but those words spread fast in our frantic and confused crowd. I was the first to sit down and rest my legs, and soon enough everyone was sitting down on line while people continued to fill up the room. There was no space for these people to even get to the check-in counters, so people just crowded around the doors. I saw an attendant erect a strap feebly blocking the entrance to the terminal but people continued to simply move it aside and enter.

At some point an attendant yelled "if you have a boarding pass and you're holding only carry-on bags, come with me!", and a huge mass of us followed him across the street to the other terminal. (This was frustrating because at the next terminal, I found myself waiting on line behind many people who I saw come in 1 or 2 hours after me!)

*Now the confusion begins... While we're on line at terminal 2
(started at terminal 3), a woman comes on the loudspeaker and tells everyone in terminal 2 to evacuate the building. Ten seconds later she says "ever[y]one should evacuate the building", then follows this up with
"if you have passed the security checkpoint, please exit the building now." This was especially confusing as our goal was the security checkpoint, but we were concerned that we would finally pass through, then be asked to exit. *

*Well I finally got through security (and left the building a few minutes later but only because my flight was canceled), and learned that terminal 2 and 3 are essentiall[y] the same terminal, and connected on the inside. This means that the evacuation of the terminals was completely ineffective, and my conclusion is that the chaos created by
TSA's and PANYNJ's response was definitely not worth it, and could have even turned into something worse. *

Putting thousands of angry, tired, hungry new yorkers in a room for 5
hours and not giving them accurate information or a clear process to follow seems like you're just asking for a riot.*