LINE UP CRISIS CONTINUES TSA security chief removed

Posted on 05/24/2016 | About New York City, New York

The head of security for the US Transportation Security Administration has been removed from his position in an attempt by the agency to address the issue of long airport lines.

Kelly Hoggan, the agency's assistant administrator for security operations since 2013, will be replaced by Darby LaJoye, TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger told NBC News. 

LaJoye, who is currently a deputy assistant TSA administrator, was previously a top security official at Los Angeles International Airport and JFK in New York. 

Hoggan was reassigned to new duties, which is a part of a series of moves that Neffenger has taken since hundreds of passengers were stranded in security lines at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport earlier this month. 

More than 400 passengers missed their flights one night recently when TSA security lines stretched up to three hours long at O'Hare. The issue is a growing crisis at the agency and causing travel chaos across the US. 

Dozens of the passengers were forced to sleep on cots at the nation's third-busiest airport, because the extremely long wait in security lines prevented them from making their flights in time. 

The following morning the lines still wound through the hallways during the early morning rush when passengers were told to expect waits of as long as three hours for international flights. 

The TSA warned travellers to expect delays across the nation earlier this month after they cut their staff numbers. The TSA has pledged to add 800 new security screeners by June, but the union that represents these workers says 6,000 new hires need to be made to speed up the screening process. 

At O'Hare, the nation's third-busiest airport, some 4,000 passengers have missed flights since February due to an understaffed TSA and record flight sales, according to American Airlines. 

Neffenger and secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson, promised that more than 300 extra TSA officers would be assigned to Chicago's airports by mid-August. 

Fifty-eight of them will be assigned within the next three weeks and 100 more part-time workers in Chicago would be promoted to full time, according to NBC. 

Johnson said on Friday that Congress had approved his request for US $34 million to hire additional officers and pay overtime to manage the long lines. 

The House panel, which held a hearing May 12 on long lines at airport security checkpoints, did not give a reason for Hoggan's dismissal as TSA assistant administrator for security operations. 

Members of the committee criticized the TSA for awardingover $90,000 in bonuses and awards to Hoggan over a 13-monthperiod. 

Neffenger said on Monday that the TSA has established a National Incident Command Center at the agency's headquarters. A new leadership team has been put in place at O'Hare and is supported by screening experts from airports across the country. 

The command center will track daily screening operations and will have the authority to shift officers and other resources as passenger volume dictates.