Assisting TSA, Delta employee leaves MSP exit unguarded

After months of long lines at TSA checkpoints, Delta decided to pitch in with their own staff and speed up the check-in process, but are they actually helping to make our airport safer?

It happened Wednesday, June 15, at 9:59 a.m. at baggage claim across from Starbucks at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. It was a guarded exit from the terminal; or, at least it was supposed to be guarded. 

To assist TSA, an employee with Delta was assigned to watch the exit, but Fox 9 has learned that Delta employee simply walked away, leaving the exit unguarded for an unknown length of time. Anyone could've walked right through, completely circumventing passenger screening. 

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A review of security footage revealed no one accessed the airport. The Fox 9 Investigators have reported on a half-dozen security breaches in the last couple of years at MSP. Most of these incidents involved passengers walking into the terminal through exits.

What makes this latest case so unusual is it wasn't handled through any of the normal channels, including an incident command group within TSA. There's no record it was reported to TSA headquarters, or entered into an inspections database. It's unclear if TSA has taken any steps to make sure it doesn't happen again.

That exit is now manned by a TSA agent, not a Delta employee. A TSA spokesperson declined to comment on Sunday night, but said the incident was reported properly, but this was not considered a security breach because no one actually slipped through.

 IN-DEPTH: Airport insecurity