Newark Airport Port Authority cops rescue child, 2, lost riding luggage conveyor belt into bowels of the terminal

Thomas Tracy, New York Daily News on May 31, 2025

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NEW YORK — A pair of Port Authority cops jumped onto a luggage conveyor belt at Newark Airport to rescue a 2-year-old child who took an impromptu ride into the bowels of the terminal, officials said Saturday.

The tot was with their mother trying to rebook a flight at the JetBlue ticket counter at Newark’s Terminal A at about 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday when the child walked behind the kiosk and stepped onto the ankle-high conveyor belt where people on departing flights drop off their luggage.

The conveyor belt immediately whisked the child behind the wall and down a switchback labyrinth of belts moving bags throughout the terminal.

A JetBlue employee flagged down Port Authority Police Officers Angel Paulino and Joe DeSilvio, who, instead of finding a door that could take them into the back of the building, decided to jump on the conveyor belt and follow the child.

Navigating the building’s system of conveyor belts, the officers “located the uninjured child in the checked baggage room on the lower level,” a Port Authority spokeswoman said.

It took about four minutes for the officers to find the child, a Port Authority source with knowledge of the case said. The child was about to be rolled through the luggage X-ray machine when they grabbed the tot.

EMS was requested to the terminal as a precaution, but the child and their mother were not harmed, officials said.

An email to JetBlue for comment was not immediately returned.