Some passengers on a Delta London to New York flight Monday night never went through immigration or customs – because their jet landed in the wrong place in a gaffe that raised security fears.
Passenger Andrew Rostron – husband of a CBS employee – told the network that people aboard Delta Flight 3 from Heathrow Airport wound up in an area of Terminal 4 near a domestic baggage claim about 8:30 p.m.
Airport officials eventually realized the passengers were in the wrong place, took down the names of those who had gathered near the baggage area and herded them through immigration and customs.
By 10:45 p.m., Port Authority police were still scurrying around the airport in a bid to track down the passengers who had been allowed to bypass Customs.
Those passengers were led back to a Customs area so they could be screened.
But anyone who disembarked without luggage or only a carry-on bag could have walked out of the airport with no screening whatsoever, Rostron said, adding that there were about 54 people aboard the flight.
“When we arrived at JFK we pulled up to the gate and the door opened, we got off and walked off the jet bridge. We didn’t really think about it but we were basically in the main part of the terminal where the passengers were preparing to board,” Rostron, a native of Britain, told The Daily Mail.
“We just kept going. Terminal 4 at JFK is pretty big so you just go and go. The only place to go to eventually was domestic baggage, so we went to the baggage counter and we explained what happened and they just asked us ‘Why are you here?’ It was just weird, very unusual,” he said.
“If you didn’t have checked luggage you could have just left, got in a cab and been gone. They had no idea.”
Delta told CBS it was aware of “a small number of customers off Delta flight 3 from London to New York’s Kennedy International Airport [who] were able to bypass customs” without screening.
“Delta is working with the Port Authority as well as Customs and Border Protection and is looking into the matter. Customer security is of vital importance and Delta makes every effort to follow appropriate procedures,” the airline said.