I was in Denver working the flight back to Los Angeles yesterday when the CSR handed me a piece of paper that I knew would spell T.R.O.U.B.L.E.  It was a meter from LAX saying that their entire airport had been faced with a security breach.  All passengers in the United terminals were going to be  evacuated for nearly two hours.

Why?

Because Albert Joseph Bryla, 22, of St. Augustine, Fla "took a wrong turn in the airport" (according to Albert's father) and bypassed a security checkpoint by barging through an emergency door.  This rocket scientist was headed home after visiting his brother in California when he decided to bolt through the emergency door and disappear somewhere inside the sterile airport terminal area.

United spokesman Alan Wayne told the media that he estimated about 1,800 travelers were affected, with 20 or more flights delayed.

Imagine that: you're just trying to travel somewhere or get home, everything's gone haywire because of the unfortunate earthquake in Seattle, and now on top of that, you have to deal with further chaos because someone thought it would be a better idea to simply barge through an emergency door.  I've walked past that door a hundred times---it's clearly marked with a large sign that says:

AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY

Logic would dictate one of the following:

1. The man ignored and/or didn't care about the airport security policy.

2. The man purposely tried to get past the security checkpoint for whatever God Help Us (remember Lockerbie) reason.

3. The man couldn't read English, and/or understand what that big line of people was doing in front of the X-ray machines.

Either way, the police caught him at his departure gate, which makes me think he chose option #3 above.  He was booked on misdemeanor trespassing with a $500.00 bail.  Yes, you read that one correctly: $500.00 bail.  That would be barely enough money required to purchase each of the 1,800 delayed passengers a $0.25 newspaper to read while they sat waiting for two hours!