Hairdresser guilty in airport breach
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – A British hairdresser whose sprint to catch a flight caused the shutdown of Philadelphia International Airport was convicted Wednesday of a misdemeanor trespass charge. Sarah Johnson, 23, of Wednesbury, England, plans to appeal her conviction after a brief trial before a municipal court judge who suspended the possible one-year sentence but fined Johnson $500 plus $148 in court costs.
The security breach and resulting 90-minute shutdown cost the airport an estimated $750,000, according to her attorney, John Elbert.
“This is why the whole prosecution came about,” Elbert said in court. He plans to appeal the conviction to Common Pleas Court before Johnson flies home Sunday.
Johnson was running late after clearing customs and immigration for a connecting US Airways flight to Puerto Rico.
Instead, her third visit to the United States ended with her spending more than 30 hours in detention, some of it in a holding cell with three other inmates.
Johnson, who vows she did no wrong, said she hoped her faith in the American justice system would be restored.
“I’ve not much faith in it so far, but I hope that will change when I file my appeal,” Johnson said.
Johnson testified that a US Airways agent told her the plane was at the gate and would be held for her for only two minutes. She said she asked several officials along the way for directions to the gate, at one point encountering a ticket agent who allowed her to go around the metal detector.
The ticket agent, Loretta Hogan, testified that she did not intend for Johnson to go around the metal detector and tried to call her back.
During the airport shutdown, passengers were taken off planes and sent through security a second time; search dogs were sent aboard planes to sniff for explosives; 1,800 to 2,000 passengers were evacuated; and flights in and out of the airport were halted.