Jiang Haisong, a 28-year-old Chinese doctoral student at Rutgers University in northeastern United States, won't easily forget the recent kiss he had with his girlfriend.

Jiang ducked the security rope at the Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey on Jan 3 to say goodbye to his girlfriend while a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) guard was away momentarily. A bystander reported the security breach to TSA officials and three terminals were shut down for some seven hours, stranding 16,000 domestic and international passengers at the busy transit hub.

The local police conducted a five-day manhunt before they found and arrested Jiang last Friday evening. He was released after hours of questioning.