15 flights delayed by snoozing screener

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Fifteen flights were delayed and about a thousand passengers re-screened Tuesday morning at Louisville International Airport in Kentucky after a security screener was discovered asleep at his post.

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Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson Kathleen Bergen says that at 6:30 a.m. a National Guardsman noticed the screener "dozing off" at a security checkpoint.

The screener was immediately relieved of his duties, an alert went up, and all concourses were evacuated so that all passengers could be re-screened, Bergen told CNN.

One American Airlines flight with passengers already on board was also emptied and its passengers re-screened.

Bergen says airport operations were at a standstill for about an hour and 15 minutes during the incident. Re-screening was concluded by 9:30 a.m.

A spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says the screener, an employee of Globe Aviation Security, was immediately dismissed.

The TSA is the new federal agency which Sunday assumed responsibility for security at the nation's airports.