Paula Abdul unwittingly caused a security furore on Thursday (02MAR06) when she was allowed to board an internal American flight without passing through a security checkpoint.

The AMERICAN IDOL judge and a friend were flying from Las Vegas, Nevada to Burbank, California, on Thursday afternoon, when an airport employee waived her around security, rather than through it.

Upon the Southwest Airlines' flight arrival in Burbank, all passengers and luggage had to be screened before they were allowed to leave the airport.

A spokeswoman for the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) says, "We're conducting an internal investigation to see who exactly was responsible."