TSA spooked by computer that smelled like a bomb, flights delayed for hours

Nearly three thousand passengers at Puerto Rico's Luis Munoz Marin International Airport in San Juan were evacuated on Thursday after a TSA security screener thought he saw a bomb inside checked luggage. The "bomb" turned out to be a computer, but before that fact was determined, incoming and outgoing flights had already been delayed for almost three hours, causing chaos on traveller's flight schedules.

In fact, all flight operations at the airport were paralyzed almost the entire morning by the false alarm. The luggage in question belonged to a married couple from the Dominican Republic. The TSA screener was checking the bag at about 0700 when the bag passed through the scanning system that shows a view of the interior of the luggage, and also scans for traces of explosives.

PR Ports Authority Miguel Soto Lacourt told newspaper reporters that this is the first time that the airport has been completely closed to all flight operations due to a bomb scare. According to Soto Lacourt, 2,500 passengers were evacuated from the terminals, and some 500 passengers who had boarded aircraft and were awaiting departure were deplaned and taken out of the terminal.

During the period in which the airport was closed, at least three large commercial airline flights were delayed and several more were either diverted or put into holding patterns until the all-clear was given. Once the security screener sounded the alarm, the Explosives Division of the PR Police Department was called in. They arrived just after 0730, and another team of explosives experts arrived some 20 minutes later, as well as agents from the local FBI office.

The security screener told authorities the computer attached to the scanner reported it had detected traces of PENT and TNT inside the box where the passenger's computer was packed. The trace quantities were below the ten percent threshold normally associated with an explosives alarm, but increased security measures have lowered the levels of chemicals at which screening systems trigger a warning.

The computer in question was the property of Dominicans Elias Franco Ramirez Galvat and Dianet Tapia Valentin, a married couple who operate a Christian music retail business. They were both questioned extensively by authorities, after which their property was returned to them. Ms. Tapia Valentin was then allowed to travel with her four children, ages 5 to 15, to Miami. Franco Ramirez did not have a ticket to travel.

FMI: www.gobierno.pr/GPRPortal/StandAlone/AgencyInformation.aspx?Filter=202