A Brooklyn man returning from Haiti yesterday strolled through two secure doors at JFK without being stopped, triggering the evacuation of thousands of passengers and grounding all flights at Terminal 8, officials said.
Jules Paul Bouloute, 57 — who fled Haiti after Tuesday’s earthquake — became the target of a Transportation Security Administration and Port Authority police manhunt after he was spotted on video-surveillance camera waltzing through an employees-only door, officials said.
He was picked up at his Canarsie home last night and charged with criminal trespass, authorities said.
Bouloute, who was seen wearing a sports jacket and a baseball cap while carrying a bag on security-camera footage, arrived on a flight from Orlando, Fla., and officials believe he got lost exiting the airport.
The suspect, who is of Haitian descent, somehow managed to get to the Dominican Republic, which borders on Haiti, after the massive tremblor, sources said. He then flew into Orlando on Friday and stayed there overnight before flying into New York yesterday.
Surveillance footage shows Bouloute passing through the first door, near Gate 5, at 3:06 p.m., the sources said.
A minute later, Bouloute allegedly walked past a second restricted-access door. Then, three minutes after the initial breach, he left the terminal at ground level, according to the sources.
When he walked through the doors, it set off an alarm, which alerted airline officials.
At 3:19 p.m., security noticed the breach on the footage and called PA cops, who responded within seconds, the sources said.
Dozens of in- and outbound flights were stopped at 3:32 p.m., and passengers were forced to evacuate the terminal 13 minutes later.
Cops and police dogs searched the area before it was cleared.
Travelers were allowed back in at about 6 p.m., although it wasn’t clear how long it would take to re-screen everyone. Officials said flights were delayed about two hours.
“They have to figure out a better way to deal with security breaches,” fumed Kathryn Allen, 54, who had already boarded her connecting flight home to Washington.
The security meltdown was similar to one Jan. 3 at Newark Airport when Haisong Jiang, 28, a Rutgers bio-medical-research grad student, sneaked past a guard and entered a secure area to kiss his girlfriend goodbye.
philip.messing@nypost.com