Sometimes, despite best efforts, you’re just so wrapped up in your tablet—whether it’s a game of Candy Crush or a favorite episode of The Big Bang Theory—that you inadvertently become a major safety threat at an international airport. Happens to the best of us!
In this instance, a passenger disembarking from a Quantas flight on Saturday morning was fixated enough on his iPad that he wandered back through an exit in Terminal 3 of Sydney Airport, essentially bypassing a security checkpoint. The result? Everyone was forced to leave the area, then submit to rescreening, which they must have been very happy about.
.@Qantas passengers evacuated at Sydney Airport after security breach, flights delayed: https://t.co/EELQK4QsNb #9News pic.twitter.com/vG84V7Wwzb
— Nine News Adelaide (@9NewsAdel) September 27, 2014
The delay amounted to an hour, the Sydney Morning Herald reported—pretty darn impressive when you consider that a stray leaf on a runway will shut O’Hare down for days. The easily distracted man who caused the terrorism scare was allowed to go on his merry way, lest he be torn to pieces by soccer fans on their way to Melbourne for the AFL Grand Final.
This worrying incident unfolded hours after authorities intercepted a 14-year-old girl on her way to a forced marriage in Lebanon via the same airport. We’d tell Australia to get its act together, but we’re not in any position to judge.
H/T CNET | Photo by Simon_sees/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
