Second Atlanta airport breach: Man bypasses TSA security checkpoint, police say

ATLANTA - For the second time this month, details about a major security breach at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport are emerging. This time, officials say the man got past the security checkpoint and onto the concourse.

Authorities say the man, Adonis Murray, made it all the way to the front door of a plane before a suspicious pilot turned him around.

Only ticketed travelers, employees, and authorized airport staff are supposed to be on one of the airport concourses, so authorities are questioning how the Macon man was able to make it so far.

Officials say Murray allegedly went up to the initial point of security and at the checkpoint, he walked right in without providing ID or a boarding pass.

Atlanta police released this bodycam video to FOX 5 showing Adonis Murray talking to officers on Jan. 6, 2023. (Atlanta Police Department)

Atlanta police body camera video shows officers confronting Murray just after 1 p.m. on Jan. 6 in front of the TGI Fridays located on the south end of the T Concourse.

Officer: "Did you go through a checkpoint, yes or no?"

Murray: "Sir…"

Officer: "I’m listening…"

Murray: "I feel like I’m being harassed right now."

Officer: "You’re not being harassed."

Murray: "There’s never been a problem"

One officer tells Murray they saw him three hours earlier asking him for help.

Murray would eventually be cuffed and searched.

"I think it is a matter of slipping through deliberately," former Clayton County Solicitor Keith Martin said when asked how it happened.

Martin is no stranger to airport incidents, having handled hundreds of airport cases throughout the years. He has offered insights into previous airport infractions in the past and offers his expert analysis on this latest breach.

"While that person could be studying a document, for three or four seconds, someone could slide through that line, apparently, and did," said Martin.

Atlanta police released this bodycam video to FOX 5 showing Adonis Murray talking to officers on Jan. 6, 2023. (Atlanta Police Department)

Officials say once he past the document checker, Murray waited for his belongings, clothing, to make it through the physical screening and went down to the escalator.

Authorities say Murray walked to the T gates, and as legitimate travelers were boarding, he went onto the jet bridge, but a suspicious pilot turned him around.

The Transportation Safety Administration, which is responsible for screening passengers at the security checkpoint released a statement reading:

"TSA is investigating the incident further with our law enforcement partners, and local TSA officials are looking into ways to improve visibility and strengthen enforcement around document checks stations."

The TSA did not disclose how long that review would take place, but the former Clayton County Solicitor shared his thoughts.

"A second set of eyes would probably be at least 100% more effective," Martin weighed in.

Murray was booked into the Clayton County Jail on charges of criminal trespass.

This breach came just hours after police arrested a man for hopping the airport’s fence. 

Man arrested after police say he jumped the fence in a hyper-secured area of Hartsfield-Jackson, stole two airport vehicles and boarded a plane. (Supplied)

Terence Stewart climbed over the razor wire fence before getting on a Delta vehicle and driving it around the airport, police say. 

He then boarded a Southwest plane, came face to face with an employee in the cockpit of that plane, deplaned and then found another vehicle to drive, investigators say. 

He was ultimately stopped by Atlanta police around 3:40 a.m., and charged with trespassing and taking two Delta trucks.

Investigators have not commented either way on if the two incidents were related.