In a stunning lapse of airport security, surveillance cameras at La Guardia Airport failed to capture even a single frame of the dramatic moments when would-be suicide bomber Scott McGann tried to blow himself up and two hero cops wrestled him to the ground, The Post has learned.
The revelation that the confrontation — in front of a federal checkpoint in the main terminal — was not recorded underscores just how porous the nation’s security remains nearly eight years after the Twin Towers were destroyed.
Investigators made the shocking discovery after they retrieved tape from Port Authority cameras, fully anticipating watching the near tragedy unfold and ultimately using it as evidence against the mentally ill terrorist wannabe.
But when they rolled the tapes, the entire episode was nowhere to be found because of a glaring lack of surveillance coverage. “There was zilch,” one flabbergasted law-enforcement source said.
“There was nothing of use,” said another.
The sources also disclosed that what little video they did recover from cameras in the general vicinity was “grainy,” of “poor quality” and basically “showed the tops of people’s heads.”
In fact, PA investigators and prosecutors at the office of Queens DA Richard Brown agreed that the tapes were of no forensic value and “unusable” against McGann.
The sources said both Big Apple airports — La Guardia and John F. Kennedy — are dogged by video blind spots.
“It’s amazing how eight years after 9/11 . . . you would think they would ensure seamless camera coverage,” said a source.
PA cops grabbed McGann, 32, as he “closed his eyes” and repeatedly clicked a trigger attached to wires running up his sleeve to what turned out to be a bogus bomb.
The incident — just feet from a federal Transportation Security Administration agents — shut La Guardia for hours, backing up air travel around the country.