Break-in Raises More Concerns over San Jose Airport Security

Despite roving security details and increased scrutiny over airport safety, a man managed to sneak onto the San Jose airport tarmac last Sunday. Miguel Zaragoza, 39, was caught by worker. But he wasn’t done. Zaragoza broke away and stole a maintenance truck before police finally caught him at a main passenger terminal.

The incident marks the third major security breach at Mineta San Jose International Airport this year. Well, the third we know about anyway. Apparently, the airport makes no effort to publicize lapses like this. The only reason this one and two prior incidents made national headlines is because information got out through the San Jose Police Department, by word of mouth or by reporters listening to police scanners.

In April, a 15-year-old Santa Clara boy climbed the 6-foot barbed wire-lined fence at the airport and tucked himself into a Hawaii-bound plane’s wheel well. Incredibly, he survived the cold and oxygen deprivation. Four months later, in August, 62-year-old serial stowaway Marilyn Hartman outwitted airport officials in San Jose by boarding a plane to Los Angeles.

Those three incidents have raised concerns about security at the airport, which sees about 200 flights a day and is patrolled by San Jose police. But airport spokeswoman Rosemary Barnes says security breaches, most of them not as serious as these three publicized incidents, are far more common than people realize. It’s just against policy to disclose details about those incidents without clearance from the federal Transportation Security Administration (TSA), she says.

“Certainly, if the public becomes aware of security situations occurring on-airport it is our duty to share certain details with approval of our security partners,” Barnes explains. But the airport has no plans to volunteer that information.

San Jose Inside asked the TSA for a list of dates and descriptions of all security breaches for the past two years. That was too broad a request, said TSA spokesman Nico Melendez.

“Narrow it down to perimeter security breaches,” he advised, explaining that it would make the request more manageable and scale it back from possibly hundreds of incidents to a short list. He said he would try to make that information available in the coming week.

A 2011 congressional review found 25,000 airport security breaches nationwide since 2001.

Jennifer Wadsworth is the former news editor for San Jose Inside and Metro Silicon Valley. Follow her on Twitter at @jennwadsworth.

5 Comments

  1. How about doing more investigative journalism and less sarcastic editorializing? You loseemore credibility with every keystroke.

    Here’s a tip…compare the number of security breaches there were BEFORE SJPD switched from a full time fully staffed division at the airport to a skeleton crew staffed 100% by officers working 12 hour shifts on regularly scheduled days off for overtime. Then question why the Mayor and Mayor elect allowed politics to trump safety!

      • It still is however by far fewer officers working longer hours one day a week and with a totally differentry mission.. but don’t look for the rock throwers at SJI to look at the cause and effect of the politicians and ballot measures they endorsed it would involve eating a heaping pilet of crow.

  2. Isn’t San Jose airport in multiple cities (both Santa Clara and San Jose) and also on some unincorporated land? And it is the main air transportation hub for the entire South Bay. I think the SC County Sheriffs Dept help protect this airport. Maybe Sam and Dave can work together on this.

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