Posted on 08/15/2003 8:41:52 PM PDT by Pikamax
Trinidadians Josh Phagoo, 13, Joel Phagoo, 21, and cousin Amit Sinanan, 13, amateur fishermen, exposed US security lapses when they accidentally found themselves on the runway of JFK International Airport in New York on Sunday.
They were photographed at their home in east New York, Brooklyn, by EDWINE SEYMOUR.
Guardian Exclusive
Lost Trinis give JFK cops a scare
BY LISA ALLEN-AGOSTINI
Three young Trinidadian fishermen gave JFK International Airport police a shock when they turned up at the Port Authority Police Station, after wandering around on the major international airport’s runways for more than an hour on their own.
“It was a kind of wake-up call for the people at the airport,” said Joel Phagoo, who was fishing with his brother and cousin in a bay behind JFK on Sunday, when their raft got blown off course.
The three, who live in Brooklyn, managed to tie the raft to a pier at the end of a runway, got out and started walking.
Reports in the New York press yesterday said they got within touching distance of jets on the active runways and saw not one officer, despite the heightened security at the airport after September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
“It’s ridiculous that three of us could walk around for an hour and 15 minutes and nobody would do anything,” said Phagoo, in a telephone interview with the Guardian yesterday.
Phagoo, 21, and his 13-year-old brother, Josh, had gone fishing in Jamaica Bay with their cousin, Amit Sinanan, 13.
Josh landed a 17-inch fish, using clams for bait, before two-foot waves started lashing their inflatable raft and pushed them to shore.
The brothers, originally from Chaguanas, and their cousin, from Felicity, had fished there before without incident, Phagoo said.
“I was scared when I realised that we couldn’t paddle back to shore…but I was more scared for them. If it was me alone, I would have jumped off the boat and swam to the pier. I wasn’t going to leave them,” he said.
When they entered the Port Authority’s main police station, officers questioned them for three hours. Police released them when they realised the youths weren’t terrorists — just lost.
“We weren’t intentionally trespassing. Even the Port Authority police said they couldn’t charge us with anything, because we didn’t plan to be there.”
The adventure has made a minor celebrity of Phagoo, a Civil Engineering student at City College, Harlem. It has also taught him a lesson.
“We going to have to get a little engine for the boat,” he said, adding that he plans to go back to Jamaica Bay. “Yeah, definitely, the fishing good there
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.