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Associated Press
Dozens of flights and thousands of passengers were delayed before dawn Monday when a man breached security at McCarran International Airport.
Las Vegas police, Federal Aviation Administration officers and airport security guards tried but failed to find the man, who bypassed a security checkpoint at the A and B gates by walking through the exit side.
McCarran spokesman Adam Mayberry said 14 planes waiting to leave the gates were not allowed to do so, and ramps were pulled away from the planes with the passengers on board "so that no one else could get on."
Another 25 arriving flights were held on the ground at points away from the terminal, some for more than an hour, as authorities searched for the man.
Employees of the affected airlines -- America West, Continental, Northwest and American -- were directed to a secure area and remained there until security deemed the situation safe, Mayberry said.
Mayberry said it was finally determined the man, who was captured on surveillance video entering the gate area, may have somehow left the terminal.
The incident began at 12:17 a.m. The airport, the nation's 10th busiest, returned to normal operations at 1:30 a.m., Mayberry said.
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