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Texas airport terminals reopen after bomb threat
A bomb threat temporarily cleared out San Antonio International Airport after officials said someone called alleging that three packages had been left inside a parking garage.
A bomb threat temporarily cleared out San Antonio International Airport after officials said someone called alleging that three packages had been left inside a parking garage.
About 2,000 passengers in the terminal were herded onto the tarmac for about 1½ hours after the unknown person called around 2:30 pm local time warning about the packages, and flights were not allowed to land at the airport, fire and airport officials said on Wednesday.
No packages were found in the terminal but bomb-sniffing dogs were still searching a parking garage, and roads leading to and from the airport remained closed, San Antonio Fire Department spokeswoman Deborah Foster said.
Once the terminals were checked out, flights resumed landing and several planes that had landed when the threat was called in were allowed to let their passengers get off, airport spokeswoman Nora Castro said.
"We want to make sure everything is safe. The canines (initially) had hits in the garage. But they have not found any devices. Sometimes they get false positives," Foster said.
Passengers taken out of the terminal were later funneled onto more than two dozen city buses, each able to carry about 36 people, VIA Metropolitan Transit spokeswoman Priscilla Ingle said.
Kristen Reeves, a Chicago hotel marketing representative, said she was returning home when she was evacuated from the terminal.
"They took us outside, and we were out in the sun for a while," she said. "I was standing in the security line and I heard the security personnel say, 'Lockdown!' really loud."
