Mineta: Airport Breach Unacceptable

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

November 5, 2001 / 12:32 PM EST / CBS

A 27-year-old man from Nepal who got past passenger screening agents at Chicago's O'Hare International airport even though his carry-on bags contained knives, pepper spray and a stun gun, was charged with a federal crime Monday and ordered held. The crime is punishable by 10 years in prison or a $250,000 fine.

Subash Gurung, in the country on an expired student visa, was held without bond pending a Thursday hearing on a federal felony charge of attempting to board a jetliner with weapons.

Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta is blaming United Airlines. Mineta said the airline is in charge of screening passengers on its flights, and he's asking the government to impose a substantial fine.

"The O'Hare failure was a case of dramatic dimensions," Mineta said on Monday.

Security employees at the checkpoint Saturday night did confiscate two folding knives that Gurung told them were in his pocket. But they failed to notice seven other knives, a stun gun and tear gas in his carry-on luggage. They were discovered by United Airlines workers who made a hand search of his luggage at the gate.

Federal law enforcement officials said there was no indication Gurung was involved in terrorism. They said he told them he mistakenly packed them in a plastic bag rather than his luggage before leaving for the airport.

"The investigation does not seem to reveal any illicit, suspicious or nefarious intent about his trip to Omaha," said Randall Samborn, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago.

The company that operates the security checkpoints for United Airlines at O'Hare, Atlanta-based Argenbright Security Inc., said eight employees including one supervisor had been suspended from duty pending an internal company investigation.

Company spokesman Brian Lott said they would be fired only if the investigation showed that "there was wrongdoing."

Last month the Federal Aviation Administration planned to audit employee background checks made by Argenbright, the company whose O'Hare employees were involved in the weekend incident.

The Justice Department said Argenbright violated its probation for previous breaches of aviation security rules by continuing to hire employees with criminal records at Philadelphia International Airport.

The government said the company, a unit of Britain's Securicor Group Plc, had violated FAA regulations at a dozen other airports. Argenbright at the time issued a statement saying it had adopted a new compliance policy.

Chicago police charged Gurung with two misdemeanors and released him on bond early Sunday. The FBI rearrested him on the federal charge later Sunday when he returned to O'Hare to retrieve his luggage.

The luggage that came back from Omaha contained two more knives, one of them with a seven-inch blade, the FBI said.

Gurung told WLS-TV in Chicago that he collects knives and that the stun gun was for protection.

"I was living there in Chicago and I don't have any riends at the time," he said. "Two years I was completely alone there, totally insecure and lonely there."

In court, Gurung's lawyer, Piyush Chandra, declined to answer questions from reporters.