03 January 2009

If bags are left unattended at the airport...

An 18-year-old boy missed his 0700 flight out of Gainesville during Christmas week. The next flight was late in the day, so he left his three bags unattended and left the airport. An airport employee noticed the bags at 0815 and reported them.

The TSA got busy. As did the Sheriff's department. And the bomb squad.

The terminal was evacuated. Traffic outside the terminal was rerouted. The parking lot was evacuated. Flights were delayed and cancelled.

The boy returned at 11:30.
"We determined that there was nothing suspicious in his luggage," Knowles said. "We're happy it turned out to be poor judgment and not something worse."
The State Attorney's office will "determine whether any charges would be filed against" the boy. More details at the link, and a rant about the events at Lew Rockwell.

3 comments:

  1. What a moron -- at 18 years old he should know better than to leave his bags unguarded/hidden in an airport. Has he never flown before? Or just too cheap to pay for a locker?

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  2. When was the last time anyone saw a locker in an airport? They were taken out years ago.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You've never been to the Gainesville airport have you? On a busy day, they may have 750 people pass through the airport. And the vast majority of those are college students. On busy football weekends, private jets will fly in, but mainly the traffic is college kids.

    Leaving his bags unattended may have been his only option, though if he had let one of the security folks know,this might have been avoided. It is quite likely he didn't have a car or a means of transporting his luggage anywhere. He was on his way home for the Christmas break.

    ReplyDelete

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