CLEVELAND — The city of Cleveland on Friday issued a statement after another security breach involving an official at Cleveland Hopkins Airport.
According to the city, the incident involved Deputy Commissioner Eric Turner. Details of the incident were not provided by the city, but a TSA regional spokesperson told 3News that the incident was an access violation.
"The City of Cleveland is aware of the recent security incident at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport involving Deputy Commissioner Eric Turner. The matter is currently under investigation and discipline will be issued if he is found in violation. The Deputy Commissioner is on duty pending the outcome of the investigation," the city's statement said.
This incident comes more than a year after the airport's then-assistant director, Fred Szabo, was also involved in a security breach with Darnell Brown, the city's Chief of Operations. In that incident, Brown had passed through a TSA checkpoint but forgot something in his car, which was parked in an airport lot. Szabo reportedly met Brown at the checkpoint and escorted him to his car, allowing Brown to bypass the checkpoint on his return with the unidentified item not being screened by airport security. It's not known what Brown carried on to the plane.
Szabo was reassigned to interim manager of the city's emergency operations center at the Department of Public Safety and suspended 10 days without pay. Brown was suspended five days without pay.
The airport was also hit by a ransomware attack in April, which caused the flight information boards to go dark. The city first denied that the incident was a result of hacking, but later reversed its course and admitted to a ransomware attack.