Security was seriously breached when a 31-year-old Howard Beach man, stranded on his personal watercraft swam roughly three miles across Jamaica Bay to the shore of JFK. He scaled an eight foot perimeter fence leading to runway 4 L. He was arrested by Port Authority Police when he approached a Delta Airlines worker for help. Forum Newsgroup photos by Luis Gronda.
Here we thought Spiderman was the only one who can scale walls, impervious to security forces.
Spiderman, and in the case of an alarming JFK airport security downfall, 31-year-old, Daniel Casillo, of Howard Beach.
According to a Port Authority Police criminal complaint, on Friday evening, Casillo climbed an eight-foot perimeter fence on the outskirts of JFK and slipped undetected by the airport’s alleged state-of the-art Perimeter Intrusion Detection System (PIDS), across two runways and into a terminal after his jet-ski failed him in Jamaica Bay.
The stranded man arrived at terminal three, startling a Delta employee, dripping wet and wearing a yellow life jacket, after a three-mile swim to shore towards the bright runway lights. Casillo “effortlessly” bypassed all $100 million worth of security measures aimed at safeguarding the transportation hub against terrorism, including motion sensors and closed circuit cameras.
It is estimated the runways he walked across, 4-Left and Runway 31L cover about two miles.
Casillo was then arrested and charged with trespassing, but not before bringing the agency entrusted in supplying airport security at area airports, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, under intense scrutiny.
For the President of the Port Authority Police Benevolent Association (PAPBA), Paul Nunziato, this incident demonstrates concerns he has been voicing since the system was announced in 2009.
In a letter addressed to the Port Authority’s Executive Director, Patrick Foye, Nunziato writes, “On August 11, 2012, the public was let in on a little secret we have known for years: PIDS is an expensive piece of junk with no value as a security deterrent.” A few sentences later he continues, “This is not the first individual to gain access to the airside without setting off the PIDS alert. Imagine what a team of terrorists not looking to be found could do.”
According to Robert Egbert, a spokesperson for the PAPBA, the system, provided by manufacturer Raytheon, has been plagued with problems since its inception. PIDS is used at all four NYC area airports, including Teterboro.
“We can cite examples of the system being breached. We cannot cite one example of system protecting anything. That’s interesting,” said Egbert.
According to Egbert, last summer, a man, who was later deemed emotionally disturbed, was swimming nude in Bergen Bay, adjacent to JFK’s main fuel farm. The man proceeded to climb the fence protecting the fuel station, again evading PIDS’s warning alarms. Egbert furthers that a tractor trailer accident brought down about a 100 feet of fence at Teterboro Airport about six months ago, but went undetected by the system.
Nunziato, in his letter, also says that a quarter mile of fencing collapsed during a December 2010 snow storm and was left that way for months, the system never alerting anyone of its destruction.
The Port Authority did not return repeated requests for comment, although several published media reports state they are conducting an investigation of the incident and beefing up patrols around JFK.
A representative with Raytheon said it would be premature to issue any sort of statement until the Port Authority has a definitive answer on what happened, but maintained the system is “state-of-the-art,” and “has been operational under Port Authority’s oversight.”
Egbert says the PAPBA will continue to pressure the Port Authority for answers, including an exact figure on how the public’s money is being spent on these systems.
“It’s our belief that the figure Port Authority uses – $100 million – is on the low side,” he said.
The Spokesman also criticizes PIDS because of its reliance on a single security guard monitoring the closed circuit cameras and the Port Authority’s decision to remove police patrols.
“We believe technology can help us do jobs. Technology cannot catch terrorist. It’s boots on the ground that do that,” said Egbert. “Once you take the human out of equation, you will not have an effective system.”
“Thanks god for the guy with the yellow vest on,” Egbert concluded. “He brought public attention to this.”
By Katie Riordan
