By Steve Strunsky
NJ.com
NEWARK, N.J. — The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has agreed to form a separate airport firefighting unit officially outside the control of the police department, and to pay $3.5 million in fines to the Federal Aviation Administration for failing to show that officers assigned to fight fires were adequately trained.
Up to now, crash response and firefighting at Newark Liberty, John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia airports have been handled by specially trained Port Authority Police officers. Those officers have been assigned to firefighting duty, while retaining their police powers to carry guns and make arrests in emergencies, a dual role that defenders of the arrangement say benefits public safety and security at the nation’s busiest airport system.
But the Port Authority’s police/firefighting arrangement is unique among the nation’s major airports, which typically use their own or municipal stand-alone fire departments. And federal aviation officials began pressing the bi-state agency to form a separate department during a series of meetings in Washington, D.C. The meetings, held this winter, included Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who oversees the FAA.
Full story: Port Authority agrees to $3.5 million fine, stand-alone fire department for airports