Super Bowl XLI
News & Happenings
February 9, 2007
Security Smooth for Super Bowl
Southeast Florida's airports handled thousands of additional passengers on hundreds of additional flights, both commercial and private, during event-filled Super Bowl week.
At Miami International Airport, TSA met round-the-clock with leaders of airport security, terminal operations, gate and ramp control and the airlines. Numbers were analyzed hourly in the days before the game, on Sunday game day, and last Monday when departures drove single day volume highest both in flight numbers and sheer volume of passengers.
At Miami Monday, TSA screened more than 52,000 people and nearly 49,000 checked bags.
"The outstanding effort in implementing prior planning by the entire airport team – Miami-Dade Aviation Department, the Miami-Dade Police Department, airlines, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and TSA – was superb and resulted in a very smooth operation as evidenced by the lowest average security checkpoint wait times we have experienced in several years,” said Miami FSD Rick Thomas.
Monday at Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, TSA screened 43,000 passengers, with the longest wait time of only 14 minutes. At Palm Beach International, average wait time was just over 5 minutes, with nearly 15,000 passengers screened on Monday.
TSA's Visible Intermodal Protection Response (VIPR) teams patrolled the Metro Rail station in downtown Miami and the Golden Glades TriRail, the rail station closest to the football stadium. Federal air marshals joined TSA surface transportation inspectors, TSA explosives experts and local police using TSA canines.
“I go to the Super Bowl almost every year and must say your screeners (transportation security officers) did a great job getting everyone through quickly,” said Dana Dokmanovich of Pittsburgh.
TSA Honors Injured Soldiers
TSA at Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood (Fla.) International Airport worked with the Department of Defense’s Military Severely Injured Center (MSIC) to help make the Super Bowl a memorable event for four U.S. soldiers who were guests of the National Football League.
When Staff Sgts. Josh Williams and Alexander Shaw, Cpl. Chad Watson and Sgt. 1st Class Dennett Oregon arrived at the airport on January 31, they were greeted by TSA staff. A few days later, before leaving, FSD Tim Lewis presented each with a Homeland Security/TSA coin as a thank you for their “service and sacrifice to the nation.” Lewis added, “I was truly inspired by the energy and positive attitudes that radiated from each of them.”
The soldiers were selected during rehabilitation at Washington, D.C.’s Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital.
TSA at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport facilitated the soldiers’ departure to Florida, meeting them curbside and providing private screening after coordinating their departure with the Severely Injured Center and the airline.
Supervisory Transportation Security Officer Paul Sickles, who is detailed at the MSIC headquarters in Arlington, Va., said, “We assist with soldiers’ travel through our airports to ensure the dignity and respect they deserve.”
