This article from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by psa188@xxxxxxxxx /-------------------- advertisement -----------------------\ Explore more of Starbucks at Starbucks.com. http://www.starbucks.com/default.asp?ci=1015 \----------------------------------------------------------/ Fishing for Blues, Strolling Among Jumbo Jets August 13, 2003 By COREY KILGANNON "I need to get my raft back," Joel Phagoo said to the police officer at Kennedy International Airport yesterday evening. The Port Authority Police officer looked up and groaned, recognizing Mr. Phagoo as the 21-year-old college student from Brooklyn who was all over the news yesterday. Mr. Phagoo and his young brother and cousin had washed up on airport property Sunday night while they were fishing in an inflatable raft in the waters near the runways. They roamed the airport's active runways, next to jumbo jets waiting for takeoff, arousing concerns that security at the airport still left a lot to be desired. Police officers did not meet the three fishermen until they wandered into the airport's main police station, Mr. Phagoo said. Clearly, these were three scared young fishermen, not terrorists devising new ways to make mischief. Satisfied yesterday that Mr. Phagoo and his fishing partners posed no risk, police officers handed over the three fishing rods, one tackle box and a very smelly rubber raft that had been impounded Sunday night. Opened clams used for bait were stuck to the bottom of the raft, attracting flies. Mr. Phagoo, a civil engineering student, packed the equipment into the trunk of his friend's car and talked readily about how he and his companions had roamed the runways unimpeded. "There were jumbo jets with their lights on, just waiting there," he said. "You could walk right up and touch them if you wanted." He said he had expected that they would be picked up by SWAT-type units soon after they landed. Instead, they walked the runways for 75 minutes looking for help. "After we realized no one was going to come up and ask us what we were doing there, we knew we had to find them ourselves," he said. "You hear stuff about all these safety precautions and the terror alert being so high, and we're there walking around in an airport we didn't even know how we got into." It all started after dinner Sunday evening, when Mr. Phagoo took his brother, Josh, and their cousin, Amit Sinanan, both 13, fishing in Jamaica Bay. They launched their 12-foot-long raft from Bayswater Park south of Kennedy Airport and began fishing in a nearby channel where the planes soar low overhead, and the stripers and blues start biting at dusk. Using clam bellies as bait, Josh landed a 17-inch bluefish that jumped clean out of the water after being hooked. The wind and the current began picking up, though, and by sunset the raft was swept away from the park and toward a pier at the end of Runway 4. The young men paddled furiously but the wind took the raft in circles. The younger youths wore life jackets but were poor swimmers, Mr. Phagoo said, and they were scared. Still, they managed to tie the raft to the pier and walk onto the runway area. About 10:30 p.m., they walked into the police station, waterlogged and smelling like bait. "The police were shocked," said Mr. Phagoo, who moved to Brooklyn from Trinidad eight years ago with his family and has applied for United States citizenship. "They wanted to know what we were doing there." They told their story and were held for three hours while officers verified it and picked up the fishing rods and tackle. None of the fishermen were charged. "It's trespassing if you go where you don't belong," a police inspector at the airport told Mr. Phagoo yesterday, "not if you're swept there by the forces of nature." Pasquale DiFulco, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport, said yesterday that an investigation into the security lapse was being conducted and that steps would be taken to tighten security. "We take security very seriously, and what happened on Sunday was unacceptable," he said. "You can't erect a 10-foot fence around the perimeter, but we are taking steps so that what took place doesn't repeat, on any level." Mr. Phagoo and his friend, Valmicky Samlal, loaded the smelly raft into the back of Mr. Samlal's blue Neon. The windshield decal read: "One Slick Trini." "Sorry," a police officer said, "we couldn't save your bluefish." http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/13/nyregion/13RAFT.html?ex=1061783820&ei=1&en=469819dce63e38bb --------------------------------- Get Home Delivery of The New York Times Newspaper. Imagine reading The New York Times any time & anywhere you like! Leisurely catch up on events & expand your horizons. 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