Romance Caused Newark Airport Security Breach, Worldwide Flight Delays

Haisong Jiang, the man now charged with aggressive tresspassing for sneaking into a secured area and shutting down Newark Liberty Airport last week, was just trying to tell his girlfriend goodbye, the Washington Post reports. According to friends, the 28-year-old Jiang is "very romantic" and was at the airport to see off a woman he had been dating for about a year. When he ducked under a rope and hurried with her into the secure part of the airport, he had little idea it would cause worldwide flight delays and his own arrest.

The saga began last Sunday, when Jiang -- after having just been warned by an airport security official to stand back -- ducked under a rope and entered a terminal through an exit lane. Both Jiang and his girlfriend were captured on security footage as they walked arm-in-arm back into the terminal. The airport was shut down for nearly seven hours as all of the passengers inside the terminals were forced to leave and be re-screened. Flights were delayed the world over as a result, and thousands of passengers were stranded.

Jiang now faces a charge of defiant trespassing and a $500 fine. The incident could affect his visa, though a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs said misdemeanor charges typically do not. Jiang has been in the United State since 2004 as a doctoral student in a joint molecular biosciences program at Rutgers University. His girlfriend recently graduated and moved to Los Angeles; she had returned to Newark for the holidays.