mke9499
Jun 3, 12, 11:50 pm
FL's flight operations at MSP were affected due to a security scare Sunday afternoon, involving a suspicious device discovered in checked baggage.
At 4:30 PM, MSP airport police notified passengers waiting at gates and scheduled on FL360 to MKE and FL810 to ATL that they had to evacuate the area and move past the security checkpoint (but within the secure area). For about two hours, customers of FL, as well as WN, and SY, waited for information from airport or security officials, but no details were provided, as police with a bomb-sniffing dog checked a Sun Country gate. Thanks to smart phones, the story of the suspicious device traveled quickly. In the meantime, TSA staff stood around, chatted with each other, and told anxious customers that they had no idea what would happen; they were waiting for direction. For a short window of time, any customers, who did not intend on waiting to fly out, were allowed to depart the secure area, but ground transportation was at a halt, including light rail. Airline crew members were also allowed to leave the area, which caused some pax to believe that no crews and no aircraft on the ground (inbound traffic was restricted from landing/deplaning), meant no departing flights.
The first sign that ops were returning to normal, was the stream of pax exiting the secure area from an arriving SY flight.
When word traveled that the gates were reopening, the patiently-waiting pax streamed in droves back to the AirTran boarding areas, and started to form a line at the podium; it was awhile before any agent was available, due to logistics, but, eventually, five or six agents arrived to handle the customers at the two gates. The two aircraft arriving from ATL and MCO were taxied to gates H9 and H10, but no passengers deplaned. Apparently, after sitting on the tarmac for awhile, the aircraft parked at other gates to deplane.
Kudos to the gate agents who dealt with with probably 100+ customers, checking on connecting flights/rebooking. Those hoping to rebook via the phone were told that the airport agents were the only ones who could take care of revising flight arrangements. Some customers ended up with new arrangements for Monday, that included six-hour layovers. If not for the large number of connecting pax, FL360 would have left much earlier, than the 3-1/2 hours past scheduled departure time.
It was about 8:45 PM before FL360 finally departed for MKE; the ATL flight departed about 30 minutes earlier.
Even though FL360 was oversold, there ended up being 27 empty seats on the flight, due to those who had missed their connections in MKE. Due to the delay being caused by a security issue, overnight accommodations for the re-booked pax wiould not be paid by FL.
http://www.startribune.com/local/minneapolis/156914835.html
http://kstp.com/news/stories/S2642350.shtml?cat=127
Yes, I was there.
At 4:30 PM, MSP airport police notified passengers waiting at gates and scheduled on FL360 to MKE and FL810 to ATL that they had to evacuate the area and move past the security checkpoint (but within the secure area). For about two hours, customers of FL, as well as WN, and SY, waited for information from airport or security officials, but no details were provided, as police with a bomb-sniffing dog checked a Sun Country gate. Thanks to smart phones, the story of the suspicious device traveled quickly. In the meantime, TSA staff stood around, chatted with each other, and told anxious customers that they had no idea what would happen; they were waiting for direction. For a short window of time, any customers, who did not intend on waiting to fly out, were allowed to depart the secure area, but ground transportation was at a halt, including light rail. Airline crew members were also allowed to leave the area, which caused some pax to believe that no crews and no aircraft on the ground (inbound traffic was restricted from landing/deplaning), meant no departing flights.
The first sign that ops were returning to normal, was the stream of pax exiting the secure area from an arriving SY flight.
When word traveled that the gates were reopening, the patiently-waiting pax streamed in droves back to the AirTran boarding areas, and started to form a line at the podium; it was awhile before any agent was available, due to logistics, but, eventually, five or six agents arrived to handle the customers at the two gates. The two aircraft arriving from ATL and MCO were taxied to gates H9 and H10, but no passengers deplaned. Apparently, after sitting on the tarmac for awhile, the aircraft parked at other gates to deplane.
Kudos to the gate agents who dealt with with probably 100+ customers, checking on connecting flights/rebooking. Those hoping to rebook via the phone were told that the airport agents were the only ones who could take care of revising flight arrangements. Some customers ended up with new arrangements for Monday, that included six-hour layovers. If not for the large number of connecting pax, FL360 would have left much earlier, than the 3-1/2 hours past scheduled departure time.
It was about 8:45 PM before FL360 finally departed for MKE; the ATL flight departed about 30 minutes earlier.
Even though FL360 was oversold, there ended up being 27 empty seats on the flight, due to those who had missed their connections in MKE. Due to the delay being caused by a security issue, overnight accommodations for the re-booked pax wiould not be paid by FL.
http://www.startribune.com/local/minneapolis/156914835.html
http://kstp.com/news/stories/S2642350.shtml?cat=127
Yes, I was there.