In yet another jaw-dropping failure at one of America’s most dysfunctional airports, a 2-year-old boy was swept away on a luggage conveyor belt at Newark Liberty International Airport — highlighting the growing danger and disarray under the Biden administration’s crumbling transportation leadership.
The terrifying incident unfolded on May 28 in Terminal A, where the Staten Island toddler wandered onto a low conveyor belt as his mother was distracted rebooking a flight with JetBlue. In a matter of seconds, the child was whisked out of sight and dumped into the airport’s lower-level luggage screening area — a place no child should ever end up.
“This was something that happened in the blink of an eye,” Port Authority PBA President Frank Conti told PIX11.
Thankfully, Port Authority officers Joseph DeSilvio and Angel Paulino immediately sprang into action. As the belt split into multiple directions, the two officers split up — racing against time to find the boy before the unthinkable happened. After a tense five-minute search, the toddler was discovered crying near an X-ray machine, narrowly avoiding being fed into it.
The child — minus one sock and shoe — was miraculously unharmed. His panicked mother was reunited with him shortly after, and the family later continued on to Tampa for their vacation. But the harrowing ordeal has reignited concerns about security, safety, and common sense at Newark — an airport plagued by mismanagement and dysfunction.
Let’s be clear: this isn’t just about one child’s near-miss. This is *yet another* red flag at an airport that’s quickly becoming the poster child for federal failure. Under Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s so-called “leadership” at the Department of Transportation, Newark Airport has descended into a national embarrassment.
Delays, flight cancellations, blackouts in the control tower, ongoing construction, air traffic controllers walking off the job, and now — toddlers being sucked into the machinery. It’s hard to believe this is a U.S. airport and not something out of a third-world country.
And the problems go beyond operational incompetence. Just two weeks ago, New Jersey health officials issued a measles alert after an infected traveler passed through Terminal B. In April, radar and communications failed for a full 90 seconds, leading to massive delays and panic. At least five air traffic controllers were so rattled they took 45-day trauma leaves. And this isn’t even the first time radar has failed — it also happened last November.
One federal aviation safety employee even sounded the alarm publicly, warning Americans *not to fly* through Newark. That should set off alarms at the highest levels of government — but instead, the Biden administration shrugs, and Pete Buttigieg continues his media tour while airports fall apart.
The sad reality is this: we have a transportation system run by bureaucrats more focused on “diversity hires” and green energy checkboxes than on basic safety and accountability.
Parents shouldn’t have to worry about their children being swept away at an airport. And Americans shouldn’t have to tolerate this level of chaos at a major travel hub.
It’s time for leadership that puts safety, order, and common sense first — and for Pete Buttigieg to stop blaming “climate change” and start doing his job.
