SEATAC, Wash. — On Jan. 9, Port of Seattle authorities arrested a man for breaking through emergency doors and running onto the tarmac at Sea-Tac airport.
“We actually had a gentleman who was distraught about other things in his life,” said Wendy Reiter, the director of security and emergency preparedness at Sea-Tac.
Reiter said that employees on the tarmac stopped the man and held him until police arrived.
Police have charged Ranjit S. Sidhu of Alberta, Canada with criminal trespass. Sidhu bonded out of the King County Jail on Jan. 11.
In November, a similar incident happened when a man jumped and ran through the security line, before making it past emergency doors and onto an empty plane. Authorities said he buckled himself into a first-class seat.
Police arrested 28-year-old RyanVan Houtte of West Seattle in the November case.
“Wow, that seems pretty easy for them to get through, and I don't know why it should be that easy,” said Bobby Morrison.
Sea-Tac officials said that those emergency doors need to stay unlocked for firefighters in case of a real emergency. The doors always set off an alarm, which happened in these cases.
“They need to figure out how they're going to determine who the culprits are going to be,” Morrison said.
But other passengers were more forgiving.
“I don't really worry about it. I think they do a pretty good job. You can't be everywhere all the time,” said Christy Smith, a passenger.
The Port of Seattle authorities said 33 million passengers go through Sea-Tac every year. They would not release the total number of security breaches in 2013.
“It actually does not happen often, but the great news is we have a lot of things in place to take care of it when it does,” Reiter said.
KIRO
