Port Authority fined $3.5M for training failures

The federal government has cracked down on four area airports, including some of the nation's busiest, for what it calls "egregious" violations of safety and rescue regulations involving more than 250 police officers.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which oversees the states' bridges, tunnels and transit hubs, confirmed Monday that it was fined $3.5 million for training lapses going back to 2010 at Kennedy, LaGuardia, Newark Liberty and Teterboro airports. Kennedy and LaGuardia, in Queens, and Newark Liberty, in Newark are among the most heavily trafficked airports in the country, each handling tens of millions of passengers a year.

Port Authority officers attended recertification sessions, but some of the paperwork that proves it was lost or wasn't completed, agency spokeswoman Lisa MacSpadden said. In addition, an undetermined number of officers may have missed hours of training, MacSpadden said.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement Monday that the violations "were egregious, and they will not be tolerated." The Port Authority has been working with the Federal Aviation Administration to rectify the failures, detailed in a new agreement between the Port Authority and the FAA to create an independent aircraft rescue and firefighting force without additional duties as police officers.

Port Authority officials say they currently are in full compliance with training requirements.

The Port Authority Police Benevolent Association Monday denied that its officers' rescue efforts were unsafe.

"We would put up our firefighting response against any airport in the country, as borne out by repeated citations in National Air Traffic Safety Board reports," Port Authority PBA President Paul Nunziato said in a statement.

The lapses were revealed during an FAA inspection of John F. Kennedy International Airport in December 2011.