The couple alerted security officers when they were allowed access to their student daughter AFTER she had gone through the secuirty screening for the U.S.
“Had I been a terrorist, I could have handed her a gun, a grenade or a stick of Semtex and she could have stuck them in her hand baggage or hold luggage,” said her father.
“It was a truly alarming hole in the security system and we wondered whether we should pull our daughter off the flight,” he added.
“The really disturbing aspect of the whole thing was that several security personnel were on hand and none of them seemed to realise what a farce it was.”
The lapse was exposed during a weekend when American aviation authorities were on high alert after intelligence had indicated a plot to hijack an airliner flying into the U.S.
Several British Airways flights have been cancelled or delayed in recent days because of information that the London-Washington route was being targeted.
There were also cancellations of flights into Los Angeles from Mexico City.
U.S. authorities have expressed concern that terrorists might attack their territory from foreign airports where security precautions are less probably stringent.
Source: The Tribune
