Lines the length of city blocks filled New York’s LaGuardia airport Saturday morning after a careless worker spilled tomato juice onto one of the five x-ray machines in the American Airlines terminal. A TSA spokesman cast the tomato juice’s victory over the machines as a failure of science, saying: “That’s the risk you take when you deal with technology.” Passengers were understandably pissed.

When CBS 2 HD told one woman the reason for the delays, she asked if we were “kidding,” but it was no joke. The Transportation Safety Administration confirmed the spill knocked out one of the five units that screen thousands of passengers here each day.

“That’s insane,” said Dallas bound passenger Pat Jones. “That shouldn’t be our problem, should it?”

But it was.

The delays left many passengers stressed out. “I just want to make sure I make my flight,” said one traveler. “I’m not sure that’s going to happen.”

Few could believe that a major airline terminal could be thrown into chaos by such a simple problem. “It makes one very sad and very worried,” said Bonnie Schmitta.

The terminal was back to normal by Saturday evening.

Tomato Juice Spill Causes Long Lines At LaGuardia [WCBS]
(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

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