Security breach empties Lambert Airport

ST. LOUIS -- A man carrying a computer bag bolted through a Lambert Airport security checkpoint Thursday evening, prompting the evacuation of a concourse and affecting as many as 25 flights, officials said.

The man remained at large more than two hours after he bypassed the security checkpoint leading into Lambert's C concourse shortly before 6 p.m. and entered through its exit area, Lambert Police Chief Paul Mason said.

"We're unable to find the individual," Mason said as the search continued.

By 8 p.m., the affected concourse was slowly being reopened, gate by gate.

While declining to speculate about the man's motives, Mason said authorities using explosives-detecting dogs were being walked through planes being boarded at the concourse when the breach happened.

"We're going to take every precaution necessary," he said.

The breach prompted American Airlines to remove passengers from about 15 flights and have those people rescreened, said Julia Bishop-Cross, a spokeswoman for the airline. An additional 10 flights have been delayed, she said. Because of the breach, "we have 25 total flights sitting right now because they can't depart," she said.

To review procedures

Mason said National Guard troops at the checkpoints were helping monitor the screening process, and "they're not focused on the exit lane." When asked if that would change in the future, Mason said "we will begin looking at our procedures, and we will see what we can do."

About an hour after the breach, hundreds of people were lined up around the baggage-claims area waiting to get back into the concourse.

Near the back of the line that snaked hundreds of feet through the main terminal, 63-year-old Pete Bucki of Raleigh, N.C., was trying to keep his sense of humor during the delay in joining his wife in Las Vegas for their 40th anniversary.

Bucki, who said he had been on the plane for a few minutes when passengers were ordered from it and the concourse, questioned the integrity of the security that would allowed the breach.

"With all these guys at security, how come they couldn't run and catch them?" he said. "Why in the hell do we have the National Guard here? Someone went through here and they can't catch him? That's ludicrous."

Behind Bucki, Dutch Antomisse, 56, was trying to cheer up others in line.

"If they couldn't catch that guy, maybe he oughta play for the Rams," he said in the city where the hometown St. Louis Rams play Philadelphia in Sunday's NFC Championship game.