Newark Screener Reassigned After Missing Butcher Knife

A TSA screener at Newark Liberty International Airport has been reassigned after she apparently allowed a butcher knife contained in a woman's purse to get past the airport's security checkpoint.

The knife was reported by the woman carrying it, who said she simply forgot to remove it from her purse before the flight.

"The knife was in a cluttered handbag," Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Ann Davis told The Newark Star-Ledger. "It was characterized to me as difficult to detect."

Neither 27-year old Katrina Bell nor her 30-year old sister, Tikisha Bell Gowens, was arrested over the knife incident.

"Suppose someone else had this knife and their motive was to hijack the plane?" Bell Gowens told the Star-Ledger. "Come on, now. We had a butcher knife. How do you miss that? How many years do you need to get this right?"

She told the Newark paper that her sister had put the knife in her purse before going out on a blind date Thursday night. She told authorities she had simply forgotten it was still in her purse when she went to the airport.

The name of the reassigned security screener was not released.

FMI: www.tsa.gov