Man dressed as a woman hops fence at Newark Airport, wanders across two runways. $300 million 'security' system failed to detect intruder. JFK and LaGuardia have same system-NY Post

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System manufactured by Raytheon.

12/25/13, "Port Authority’s $300M airport security system fails again," NY Post, Philip Messing

"The Port Authority’s pricy perimeter-protection system failed again Wednesday when it failed to detect that a man — dressed as woman — had hopped a fence at Newark Airport and wandered across two runways, sources told The Post.
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Siyah Bryant, 24, of Jersey City, was wearing women’s red pants and a smart brown sweater as he allegedly walked onto the tarmac at about 4:20 a.m. after tryst in a car near the airport went bad.
Newark’s Perimeter Intrusion Detection System should have alerted officials to Bryant’s presence long before he took his turn on the runway — but the $300 million-plus system flunked.

“The [PIDS] cameras were operating and he was not detected by the PIDS system,” a source said. Bryant’s misadventure began while he was on “a date” with another man and their car ran out of gas on the New Jersey Turnpike, sources said.

Bryant “felt uncomfortable” when his pal called a third man to bring them fuel, so he set off on foot, sources said.

He allegedly scaled the security fence and rambled unnoticed across two runways before trying to enter Terminal C, where he was confronted by a United Airlines worker, who called cops. He was charged with criminal trespass.
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The PIDS system includes cameras that watch the airport’s outer fence, which is topped with barbed wire and lined with sensors to detect climbers. The PA could not immediately say why Bryant was not spotted.

The latest failure follows a similar breach at JFK Airport in August 2012, in which a tipsy jet-skier ran out of gas and swam to the airport, where he vaulted a ­6-foot fence and sauntered across two runways undetected before asking a worker for help.

And it also tainted a qualified success for the PIDS system earlier this week.

At JFK, it helped PA cops nab an intruder who had scaled a fence and went onto an airport roadway. Personnel for PIDS — now operating at JFK, La Guardia, Newark and Teterboro airports — spotted an emotionally disturbed Wisconsin man Sunday afternoon after he climbed over a fence near Rockaway Boulevard and walked between two runways half a mile away, sources said.

Makhonjwa Mashoba, 31, of Milwaukee, was taken into custody, though even that came after a delay of some 10 minutes, sources said.

PA cops were not immediately told that a camera had picked up Mashoba’s presence because PIDS personnel wanted to be certain of what they were looking at, the sources said.

“If this thing really worked, we would have been told about it ­after this guy climbed the fence, rather than 10 minutes after he was spotted on the camera,” a ­police source explained.

Mashoba had been reported missing by his family on Dec. 1 and wouldn’t explain to cops why he was on the airport grounds. “Take me to your leader,” he allegedly replied in a robotic voice.

Mashoba then grew combative, and NYPD Emergency Service Unit cops needed to subdue him.
When detectives quizzed him about his motives, he allegedly ­replied: ­“Access denied.” He was taken to Jamaica Hospital and faces trespassing charges.

“This is the first time the system came close to working as advertised,” said Paul Nunziato, the president of the PA police union.

The PA has repeatedly declined to provide details on how much it has paid manufacturer Raytheon for the system, but insiders put the tab at well over $300 million."





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