Never Forget? Getting Box Cutters on Flight at JFK No Problemo

John Del Signore

Published Mar 2, 2011

Modified Mar 2, 2011

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John Del Signore

Published Mar 2, 2011

Modified Mar 2, 2011

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A flight bound for the Dominican Republic was grounded for three hours at JFK airport Saturday night after it was discovered that a passenger's carry-on bag contained box cutters. How were these items—with their grim connection to 9/11—discovered? They fell out of the bag as the passenger was trying to stuff it into the overhead bin. Limited carry-on luggage space may be the best defense in our war against Al-Qaeda!

New Jersey factory worker Eusebio D. Peraltalajara had no trouble getting through the TSA screening at the airport Saturday night, despite the presence of three box cutters in his carry-on luggage, sources tell the Post. Once aboard Santiago-bound Flight 83, the flight attendant asked him to stow his luggage in the overhead compartment. That's when Peraltalajara's sinister plan to forget he had boxcutters in his bag unraveled. The flight attendant grabbed the contraband and the plane's 136 passengers and five crew members were evacuated by PAPD Emergency Service Units, the Joint Terrorism Task Force and the FBI.

Investigators used bomb-sniffing dogs to sweep the plane, but came up with nothing. Peraltalajara insisted he uses the box cutters for work, and simply spaced out that they were in his bag. He was not charged. Police sources say Agent Ahmir Wilkerson, supervisor Anthony DeJesus and at least one other screener are being retrained and disciplined for letting the bag slip through security. Previously on TSA Security Theater, two TSA agents were accused of stealing $160,000 in cash from checked bags at JFK, and at Newark airport, TSA screeners let a hunting knife and smoke bombs get through.

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box cutters

JFK

jfk airport

security theater

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John Del Signore

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Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.

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