Dozens of travelers were left stranded at Chicago’s O'Hare International Airport overnight after security lines stretched so long passengers missed their flights.
Just after 9:30 p.m. Sunday, American Airlines officials were handing out blankets and providing cots for passengers who didn’t make it onto the last flights out to their destinations.
Security lines were stretching further than the eye could see, taking more than two hours to make it through due to understaffed Transportation Security Administration checkpoints. TSA officials were urging travelers to get to the airport more than three hours before their flight was scheduled to board.
Countless passengers still couldn’t make it to their gate on time after waiting for hours. Many ended up camping out on the ground of O’Hare’s Terminal 3:
Another solution offered from TSA was their new “pre-check” system that allows passengers to go through an expedited line, but those pre-check lines were not open by the time the other security lines were for the first flights out Monday morning.
Unbelievably long lines are becoming the norm because of the shortage of TSA workers. The TSA said it plans to hire nearly 800 additional workers by June, but the union representing the workers says they need 6,000 hires to alleviate the long lines. [[379622341, C]]
