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<p>January 6, 2004 -- The United States launched a new program that scans fingerprints and takes photographs of millions of foreign visitors at Kennedy and other airports yesterday, hoping the high-tech measures will help prevent terrorists from entering the country. The $368 million identity-check program - called US-VISIT, or U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology - started smoothly at Kennedy as foreign arrivals told The Post they found the process relatively hassle-free and a small price to pay in times of terrorist threats.</p>

U.S. aviation and law enforcement officials said yesterday that intelligence has identified a variety of dates, flights and routes that pose an elevated risk. For at least three weeks, officials have been combing through names of passengers ticketed on some flights from Mexico, France and other countries bound for Los Angeles International Airport, Dulles Airport and New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, according to a senior aviation official. [...] U.S. counterterrorism officials will keep close watch on some flights for the next several weeks, according to a senior aviation official. "They will take appropriate action in the weeks ahead,"...

Death on Airplane After Emergency Landing Leaves Many Unanswered QuestionsBy Tom Hays Associated Press WriterPublished: Oct 18, 2003 NEW YORK (AP) - Alexander Siess was on a recent flight from Mexico City to Paris when, authorities say, he became so unruly the pilot made an emergency landing at Kennedy International Airport. Minutes after the 767 jet touched down, the 25-year-old Austrian was dead. The circumstances of the little-noticed death last weekend - which may have involved alcohol and a violent struggle - remain murky. An autopsy on Siess was inconclusive; toxicology and other tests were pending. "We've been told it's...

AA flight makes emergency landing after nose gear fails Tuesday September 02, 2003 NEW YORK (AP) An American Airlines plane was forced to make an emergency landing at Kennedy International Airport on Tuesday after its nose landing gear malfunctioned, officials said. No one was hurt as Flight 1048 bound for Newark, N.J., from Dallas-Forth Worth came down on the tarmac, using the landing gear under the middle part of the aircraft, said Todd Burke, an American Airlines spokesman. All 128 passengers and the crew of five used normal exits to leave the aircraft, said Tiffany Townsend, a spokeswoman for the...

Airport Security: One If By Land, None If By Sea. We're safe from pocket knives, nail files, and scissors, but the TSA has a long way to go protecting our airports from terrorists wearing Speedos or armed with fish hooks. Last week, JFK International was invaded by three people (one adult and two kids) who had been fishing in Jamaica Bay. They beached their raft, and then wandered around the supposedly-secure airport operations area for over an hour before anybody noticed. Plenty of time to have a fish-fry. Or, if they were terrorists, to set up a fire base and/or...

Think the Unthinkable By Ralph Kinney Bennett 08/14/2003 The impossible can only be overborne by the unprecedented. -- Sir Ian Hamilton, Gallipoli Diary, 1920 The thing was done in a minute. It was September dusk and traffic was relatively light on the Grand Central Parkway as the black Honda Accord pulled over to the berm beside Planeview Park, at the end of LaGuardia Airport. As usual, a jetliner was in its final seconds before touching down on the runway. The whine of its engines could be heard above the rush of passing trucks and taxis. The sunroof on the Honda...

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...

NEW YORK, Aug 14, 2003 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- A New York Times reporter and photographer who were following up on a story about lost boaters at Kennedy International Airport were themselves picked up by police near the airport Wednesday. An airport spokesman said reporter Corey Kilgannon and photographer Librado Romero were in a small boat that breached a security zone established by the Coast Guard. The Port Authority police marine unit picked up Kilgannon, Romero and boat operator Lawrence Seaman in Jamaica Bay off runway 4R, said Pasquale DiFulco, a spokesman for the Port Authority, which runs the...

NEW YORK (AP) - A New York Times reporter and photographer were cited by the Coast Guard for breaching a security zone after they were picked up in a small boat near Kennedy International Airport. Reporter Corey Kilgannon and photographer Librado Romero were following up on a story about three lost fishermen who washed ashore at the airport Sunday and wandered undetected near a runway. The incident embarrassed the Port Authority, which vowed to increase security. The journalists were riding in a boat Wednesday that was operated by Lawrence Seaman, who was also taken into custody. The Port Authority police...

SEATTLE - Two Pakistani men were being held on possible immigration violations Wednesday after an airline employee at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport found one of their names on a terrorism-related "no-fly" list, authorities said. Port of Seattle police detained both men Saturday night and turned them over to the FBI (news - web sites). "We're looking at how they entered the country. Sometime in the near future they'll be scheduled for an immigration hearing," said Michael Milne, a spokesman for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. No criminal charges have been filed against the men, whose names were not released....

3 boaters wander onto JFK runway N.Y. authorities probe case of trio who washed ashore MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS NEW YORK, Aug. 12 — Authorities were investigating the case of three young boaters whose raft washed ashore near John F. Kennedy International Airport over the weekend, breaching security to wander around for a mile near a runway. THE BOATERS, a 21-year-old man and two 13-year-old boys, became lost on their inflatable fishing raft after a rainstorm Sunday night and floated into Jamaica Bay, authorities said. “It got rough out there, and the waves started blowing the boat towards the...

Security Investigation Launched at JFK Airport in N.Y. After Boaters Found Wandering on Runway NEW YORK Aug. 12 — Authorities are investigating the case of three young boaters who wandered onto a runway at Kennedy International Airport after their raft washed ashore near the airport. The boaters, a 21-year-old man and two 13-year-old boys, were on an inflatable fishing raft, but became lost after a rainstorm Sunday and floated into Jamaica Bay, authorities said. "It got rough out there, and the waves started blowing the boat towards the airport," Joel Phaggoo, one of the lost trio, told WABC-TV. They anchored...

<p>In a shocking security breach at JFK Airport, three teens wandered around an active runway - and were so under the radar that they had to turn themselves in to Port Authority cops, it was revealed yesterday.</p> <p>The incident began shortly after Joel Phagoo, his kid brother and a cousin launched an inflatable raft to go fishing in Jamaica Bay near the airport, WABC-TV reported last night. When the weather turned bad, the raft drifted toward JFK.</p>