Newsstand - Palm Beach Airport Evacuated ??

I haven't seen any news stories on this, but a co-worker who is stranded at the airport tells me the terminal has been evacuated.

Anyone heard anything on this?

We have a few of our screeners working down there for a few weeks and one of them called us tonight and said that they had found an "item" in one of the checked bags. I have checked the news, but nothing so far.

An unlocked checked bag in which the person was told to leave, then the item was found so the airport was evacuated instead of writing a letter to his household because the owner of the bag wasn't around to be arrested?
Please tell me this isn't the case.

SHADO

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by SHADO:
Please tell me this isn't the case.

SHADO</font>

I'd have to go to confession if I did http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/eek.gif



------------------
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Ben Franklin

Found a story on it:

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Officials evacuated Concourse C, the terminal, and sealed off the entrance to Palm Beach International Airport to investigate a possible explosive device in the baggage area Sunday night.</font>

Full story:

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/news/0427airport.html


[This message has been edited by jmartin (edited 04-27-2003).]

More elaborate follow-up story now posted...

seems it was Secret Service checked luggage, and the X-Ray looked like bomb components- and the detection device agreed on traces.

His boses said he was on 'official duty' and authorized to carry it, FBI and TSA felt differently about it.


http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/auto/epaper/editions/today/news_e3ca0b4c123f22780076.html

Looks like the system worked as advertised. The secret service agent should be fired for causing this incident.

Sounds like the TSA, FBI and Secret Service ain't figured out how to work together.

The gummmint should be fired. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/rolleyes.gif

With the average age of PAX at Palm Beach being 112, how long dit it take to evacuate the airport, a week?

If only the TSA personnel who discovered the device had been taped - now that would be a funny video. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Once again, not a real bomb.

Not only that, not even a real bad guy.

Money well spent. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/rolleyes.gif

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by The Unknown Screener:
Looks like the system worked as advertised. The secret service agent should be fired for causing this incident.</font>


Surely you jest?


------------------
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Ben Franklin

Why would you say that? He brought a device into the airport that is designed to set off the machines (test module), he was not there to test the PBI people, and he did not tell them beforehand what he had in his bag. That is a REQUIREMENT to prevent just what happened. He was on his way to LGA to test their people. This entire incident was caused by one secret service agent who did not follow the correct procedures for handling test modules. He should be fired for causing the problem.

Of course you tazi, with your blinders on will only see the TSA as being at fault and blah, blah, blah.

The TSA decided to evacuate before identifying the owner of the bag. The TSA did not bother to run additional checks of any kind until the evacuation was in progress. As usual, the TSA overreacted in a knee-jerk fashion. The only solution the morons in charge of your agency ever come up with when there is a scenario like this is evacuate first, think later.

It's exactly stupid decisions like this one that will cause hundreds to be killed when someone uses a real device on all the helpless evacuees that the TSA shunts out to the parking lot because they don't bother to check things out and think before hitting the well-worn panic button! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mad.gif

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by The Unknown Screener:
Why would you say that? He brought a device into the airport that is designed to set off the machines (test module), he was not there to test the PBI people, and he did not tell them beforehand what he had in his bag. That is a REQUIREMENT to prevent just what happened. He was on his way to LGA to test their people. This entire incident was caused by one secret service agent who did not follow the correct procedures for handling test modules. He should be fired for causing the problem.

Of course you tazi, with your blinders on will only see the TSA as being at fault and blah, blah, blah.</font>



------------------
"Give me Liberty or give me Death." - Patrick Henry

I was just glad that I decided to return to PBI early Monday morning instead of Sunday night! What a fiasco! This is the second time in 2003 that they evacuated Concourse C. The last time I got stuck on the runway for about 1 1/2 hours.

PBIA bomb scare examined

PalmBeachPost.com Article (http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/auto/epaper/editions/monday/news_e38c3505019331fd00a4.html)

"When an airport baggage screener pried into a black laptop computer bag three weeks ago, a tiny red light atop a homemade bomb-like device illuminated, sending Palm Beach County deputies, security officials and passengers into a nightlong frenzy.

It would be nearly two hours before anyone would get close enough to the bag to learn that it belonged to a U.S. Secret Service agent, and the device was nothing more than a harmless training aid."

I'm glad to see an investigation of the TSA's idiotic 'Evacuate first, think later' policy.

------------------
"Give me Liberty or give me Death." - Patrick Henry

Road patrol deputies, not the sheriff's command center, which was quickly organized to handle the threat, ordered the evacuation of two of the airport's three concourses.

TSA screeners had another problem. They couldn't call for an evacuation of the airport on their own. Only their boss, Brooks, or the sheriff's office -- which patrols the airport -- could do that. Sheriff's officials quickly agreed to evacuate.

Less than 15 minutes later, sheriff's road patrol deputies were evacuating the other two terminals, Concourses A and B, ON THEIR OWN INITIATIVE. "At this time, (airport operations) advised that Concourse A/B was NOT to be evacuated," Fullone wrote.


Glad to see they know who ordered the evacuation in the first place. Those out of control TSA guys sure did drop the ball by allowing road patrol deputies to evacuate the concourses.

edited for spelling and spelling and more spelling...I am not having a good spelling day.

[This message has been edited by The Unknown Screener (edited 05-19-2003).]

[This message has been edited by The Unknown Screener (edited 05-19-2003).]

[This message has been edited by The Unknown Screener (edited 05-19-2003).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by The Unknown Screener:
Road patrol deputies, not the sheriff's command center, which was quickly organized to handle the threat, ordered the evacuation of two of the airport's three concourses.

Glad to see they know who ordered the evacuation in the first place. Those out of control TSA guys sure did drop the ball by aloowing road patrol deputies to evacuate the concourses.</font>

Most of those road patrol people are nothing more than old retired people given auxilliary duties with the sherrif's department. The same nasty old farts who make great condo-commandos love to sign up for public service duties like these.

They should have NO authority to evacuate the terminals, and in my opinion, most of them should be shipped right back to Century Village. I cant believe that the PBI airport management team didnt over-ride them and take ownership of this issue...instead, thousands of people were inconvenienced for hours. Good show!

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Spiff:


"When an airport baggage screener pried into a black laptop computer bag three weeks ago, a tiny red light atop a homemade bomb-like device illuminated, sending Palm Beach County deputies, security officials and passengers into a nightlong frenzy. "

</font>

Yet another reason why bag inspections need to take place in the presence of the bag owner. If the Secret Service Agenet had been there when the flashing red light was found, the whole thing could have been avoided.



[This message has been edited by studentff (edited 05-19-2003).]

I know this is a old article but some of the stuff people posted I wanted to comment on.

1) Honestly, if it had been a real bomb and the passenger had been present, what if he had a device to set it off when he saw it was discovered? I know its a what if question , still needs to be asked.

2) You cant know if the possible bomb is meant for the plane or airport. So they thought they saw something deadly and had people evaculated then they had a bomb squad brought in to clear it.

3) If they had paged the said passenger and he had been a terrorists, would you want the possiblitiy of him being able to set it off anywhere in airport with you still in it?

4) The Xray tagged the bag and then the ETD alarmed upon swabbing, both pieces of equipment did there jobs. Being that he works with explosives it looks like, samples were proably all over him and his bag.

5) Remember some of this bag check area are right under heavyily traffic areas for passengers. If it had been real and gone off, what would you be saying?

Again, the entire TSA/Homeland Security effort is shown as being poorly managed. As one posted mentioned, if the intent was to gather as many people into a confined area to blow them up, then the TSA/Airport/Police helped out the terrorists.

What a target rich envirnment was created when they evacuated the bldg.

When will some real managers and decision makers stand up and make the tough decisions? We can not protect against everything, even though we are determined to keep people from flying!!

I agree that TSA needs to be straightened out, but in this instance it was ****ed if you do and ****ed if you dont in my view.

Yes, evacuating the passengers could have ;ead to many deaths if it had indeed been real. Then again if no evacuatie was done and it had gone off, people might still have been killed in great numbers.

Truthfully it should have been done like this, after they saw the item they should have could a bomb squad in and somehow got them there without the whole airport knowing and found out if the item was a bomb or not. But in that scenario, you run the risk of it being real and going off and killing and hurting many passengers, who would come back and possibly sue the airport and TSA for not issueing a evacuative order.

So in one way, Im happy that the machines that TSA chose did the job. But in another way, the idea seems to be that evacuative is the answer to everything.

[This message has been edited by screenerx (edited 09-05-2003).]