Grenades found in soldier's bag at airport
By SAEED AHMED
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 01/27/05
Grenades found in the checked luggage of a soldier returning from Iraq briefly disrupted operations in a section of Hartsfield Jackson International Airport Thursday evening.
The soldier had arrived on a military chartered flight to Atlanta about 5:15 p.m. and was having his bags examined at the international terminal when the screening device alerted officials to the presence of an explosive, said Yolanda Clark, a spokeswoman for the federal Transportation Security Administration.
The TSA screener opened the bag and initially found one grenade. The second was discovered soon afterward.
The solder apparently had tried to inform TSA officials about the explosives, said Lanii Thomas, spokeswoman for the airport.
Arriving passengers on three international flights were kept from deplaning while officials looked into the matter. About 200 passengers were in the receiving area of the terminal at the time, officials said.
"We didn't evacuate anybody," Thomas said. "We just moved people a safe distance away from the area."
Operations in other parts of the airport continued as normal.
The incident occurred about 5:15 p.m. a bomb squad removed the bag and the soldier was taken in for questioning by military officials and the FBI.
Arriving passengers were allowed to deplane about 40 minutes later.
"Troops who come through are routinely asked to remove all their weapons but from time to time, some of them forget," Thomas said. "This happened to be one of those times."
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By SAEED AHMED
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 01/27/05
Grenades found in the checked luggage of a soldier returning from Iraq briefly disrupted operations in a section of Hartsfield Jackson International Airport Thursday evening.
The soldier had arrived on a military chartered flight to Atlanta about 5:15 p.m. and was having his bags examined at the international terminal when the screening device alerted officials to the presence of an explosive, said Yolanda Clark, a spokeswoman for the federal Transportation Security Administration.
The TSA screener opened the bag and initially found one grenade. The second was discovered soon afterward.
The solder apparently had tried to inform TSA officials about the explosives, said Lanii Thomas, spokeswoman for the airport.
Arriving passengers on three international flights were kept from deplaning while officials looked into the matter. About 200 passengers were in the receiving area of the terminal at the time, officials said.
"We didn't evacuate anybody," Thomas said. "We just moved people a safe distance away from the area."
Operations in other parts of the airport continued as normal.
The incident occurred about 5:15 p.m. a bomb squad removed the bag and the soldier was taken in for questioning by military officials and the FBI.
Arriving passengers were allowed to deplane about 40 minutes later.
"Troops who come through are routinely asked to remove all their weapons but from time to time, some of them forget," Thomas said. "This happened to be one of those times."
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