RSW responds to security concerns after woman breaks through fence with her car

The head of Southwest Florida International Airport is responding to your security concerns after a woman crashed through a gate and drove across the runway on Saturday.

Ben Seigel, executive director of the Lee County Port Authority, is standing tall behind his staff, Port Authority police and the Lee County Commissioners saying that everything went according to plan and that the security in place worked.

Siegel has called Southwest Florida home for a long time, and as the executive director of the port authority, his job is to keep airport passengers and employees safe.

When asked if he trusts the security measures at RSW, “The answer is ‘absolutely yes.’ 100%. Our airport is incredibly safe,” said Seigel.

In his first interview since 42-year-old Alejandra Campuzano crashed her car through gate 76 and drove across the entire runway before being stopped by authorities, Siegel answered this question; was this a breach of security? “I mean, I don’t believe that… That wouldn’t be the context that I would put it in. It’s a multi-layered level of security, we have deterrents that I can’t speak to throughout the airport to protect all activities at the airport,” said Seigel.

Still, Campuzano got through the gate. Her arrest report says she created a life-threatening situation for aircraft with hundreds of people on board.

MORE: Woman arrested after crashing through gate, driving onto runway at RSW

“I will tell you that anytime there’s an event, we always, always take a look at ourselves, look at how we how the event unfolded, look at what we did, and look to see if there’s ways that we can improve things,” said Seigel.

Days after the incident, the fact is there’s nothing new to stop anyone from slamming through the gate again. “I cannot disclose anything that we would do or any changes that we would make that is all sensitive security information that I am prohibited by federal law to disclose,” said Seigel.

WINK News asked Siegel if there was an emergency meeting in the wake of what happened on Saturday. He said no, but said they review their course of action after every event.

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