PHILADELPHIA — A Georgia man who used an airline employee’s badge to bypass security and enter restricted areas at Philadelphia International Airport was sentenced this week to more than two years of supervised release, federal prosecutors said.
David Easley, 39, was sentenced to 26 months of supervised release, including two months of home confinement, by U.S. District Judge Gail A. Weilheimer after pleading guilty to evading airport security requirements, according to U.S. Attorney David Metcalf.
Federal authorities said Easley was never employed at Philadelphia International Airport but nevertheless gained unauthorized access to secure areas by using a Secure Identification Display Area badge belonging to an airport employee. The offense occurred March 9, 2024, as Easley was preparing to board a domestic flight from Philadelphia to Atlanta scheduled to depart at 7:05 p.m.
Court filings show that at about 6:35 p.m., surveillance video captured Easley using the employee badge, entering a passcode, and unlocking secure doors that separate the public ticketing area from restricted airport zones. Prosecutors said Easley knowingly and willfully bypassed required security screening and entered an employee-only area located between the public pre-security space and the post-security sterile terminal.
Easley then accessed the public sterile area — where screened passengers wait to board flights — without passing through Transportation Security Administration screening. TSA officers later encountered him during random security inspections intended to prevent unauthorized individuals or prohibited items from entering the secure terminal.
Easley was charged by information in May and pleaded guilty in July to one count of evading airport security.
The case was investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Priya De Souza.
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