An emergency was declared at the Miami International Airport on Thursday evening when Transportation Security Administration screeners found a metal canister in the luggage of a 70-year-old traveler. Because the canister resembled a pipe bomb, the airport terminal was evacuated of hundreds of people and four concourses were closed. No explosives were found and the terminal eventually re-opened for business, but not until after the FBI and Miami Dade County Police interviewed the man, who it turns out is a scientist.
In addition to the terminal evacuation and concourse closures, the Miami International Airport Hotel which is attached to the terminal was evacuated and roadways into and out of the terminal area were closed. Miami International has a two level roadway that wraps around the enormous complex. After the bomb squad completed a thorough inspection of the terminal, it re-opened at 4 a.m. Friday.
A TSA statement said that multiple law enforcement agencies went to the scene, and the traveler, Thomas Butler, was located and taken into custody. Butler had been charged in 2003 with illegally transporting bubonic plague. He was acquitted of some charges but convicted of illegally shipping vials containing samples of the bacteria overseas in a FedEx pacakge.
According to an airport spokesman the bomb squad was called to the airport, Concourse E at 9:30 p.m. Thursday to inspect the item that the scanners had concerns about. Four of six airport concourses were closed during the emergency. It’s estimated that several hundred people were evacuated from the airport terminal.
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You have to be careful with those 70 year old travelers.
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