Police arrest 2 at area airports over security breaches

Two people at area airports were detained Thursday, one for trying to take weapons onboard and the other for trying to charge the flight deck.

A Hewlett man checking in for a flight to Las Vegas with handcuffs, knives, tear gas, a police baton and a fake police shield in his luggage was arrested at Kennedy Airport, Port Authority police said.

Around 7 a.m., Kenneth Weinberger, 26, of Lakeview Drive was going through security for a JetBlue flight when screeners saw an expandable police baton in his luggage, a Port Authority police spokesman said.

When questioned, Weinberger showed a police shield and identification card, and said "he was a member of the Nassau County police reserves," the spokesman said. He said he received the baton from the Nassau police, a spokesman said, and later he asked for a lawyer.

After he was taken into custody, a search revealed the other items, the spokesman said.

A woman who answered at Weinberger's home hung up without comment.

At Newark Liberty International Airport, Port Authority police and federal investigators were questioning a woman who tried to storm the flight deck of a JetBlue Airlines flight from Fort Myers, Fla., to Newark.

The woman, who had been prescribed medication to deal with claustrophobia, was subdued by an air marshal and an off-duty police officer from Charlotte, N.C., on the flight. The pilot declared an emergency and made the on-time landing at 2:24 p.m., according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

With Keith Herbert