San Jose stowaway raises security questions at airports

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - The security implications raised by the San Jose stowaway are obvious. "You could easily sneak a bomb onto that. So you could put others in danger, you could put the whole flight in danger" said a traveler from Maui at Honolulu International Airport.

Airport personnel admit, that no security system currently in place is impenetrable.

"No system is 100%, and it is possible to scale an airport perimeter fence line especially under the cover of darkness" said Mineta San Jose International Airport Spokeswoman Rosemary Barnes.

Maui District Airport Manager Marvin Moniz echoes her sentiment. "Everywhere that you go, nothing is 100%, it's just multiple levels of security that you have".

Moniz said that the airports in his district are all in compliance with federal regulations when it comes to proper barbed wire fencing, video monitoring, and vehicular and foot patrols.

"We have airport police which is contracted Securitas for the state of Hawaii. They do our perimeter patrols along with TSA and airport police who are the actual law enforcement guys that cover a little bit more of the high risk areas such as checkpoints--but they do patrols as well" said Moniz.

He admits, it's impossible to be everywhere at once. He also says there have been fence jumpers in the past.

"If they hop a fence, and we've seen them in the past---we've had a few, we detain them, we send security out, they detain the individual and we involve homeland security as well as the FBI".

However, none have ever made it to a plane in Hawaii, according to Moniz.

He says the San Jose incident is a good reminder for his team.

"We'll regroup with our people, and see what happened in San Jose. If there's something we could pick up on, we will".

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