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Man Sidesteps JFK Security, Boards Plane

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Oct 31, 2007 5:44 pm US/Eastern

Man Sidesteps JFK Security, Boards Plane

TSA: Breach Not Terrorism-Related

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QUEENS (CBS/AP) ― A passenger who caused an evacuation at Kennedy International Airport has told law enforcers that he breached security after going outside to smoke and then misplacing his boarding pass.

William Contreras Ramos, 20, of San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico, was being detained upstate on Wednesday until the FBI could come get him, according to Albany County Sheriff James Campbell.

Ramos told sheriff's deputies that he had noticed he was running late and didn't have his boarding pass, so he went through another door and was able to get to his flight's gate.

He had no weapons on him, but a straight razor was found in his carry-on luggage, said Campbell.

Thousands of passengers and dozens of flights were delayed for several hours during the evacuation and subsequent security rescreening.

The incident caused terminals to be evacuated and passengers to be re-screened, the federal Transportation Security Administration said.

The passenger walked up an exit lane past a private security guard at terminal two at about 6:40 p.m. Tuesday, the TSA said.

The guard could not immediately locate the passenger and notified the TSA of the security breach, sparking a wide search for the man at terminals two and three, the federal agency said.

"He was going through the exit lane. That's going the wrong way," TSA spokesman Norm Brewer said. "As I understand it, he was challenged and stopped. And then what happened, I do not know. He at some point ended up beyond that exit approach and the rest is sort of history."

The Port Authority, which runs the airport, called the sheriff around 6:45 p.m. to say the man had boarded a plane to Albany. Deputies there boarded the plane and took him in for questioning.

The TSA said in a statement on its Web site that "there is no known nexus to terrorism at this time."

Brewer said Aviation Safeguards, a division of Command Security Corporation, operates private security at JFK airport. Calls to the company were not immediately returned.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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