UPDATE: Newark airport cameras weren't working

The best explanation we can find for the Sunday night snafu that caused massive flight delays at Newark airport is in a report by the local newspaper (still your best source of original news reporting!), the Newark Star-Ledger. According to the story, a surveillance camera on a checkpoint where a man, who's not been identified, walked unimpeded the wrong way into the "secure" area had not worked for almost a week.  Not only did a TSA agent not stop the man, but it took TSA more than an hour to contact the right people at Continental, which operates a big hub in the affected terminal, to look at a backup tape, and to notify NY-NJ Port Authority police about the security breach. Poor performances all around create disurptive, expensive messes for airlines and their customers.