Lockdown Lifted at Sky Harbor Terminal as Manhunt Ends
Amanda Cyr September 18, 2014
Operations at Terminal 4 of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) resumed Thursday evening after police lifted a lockdown on the area.
Police locked down the terminal for several hours in order to search for a suspect in connection with a shooting at a local gas station. An altercation at the gas station earlier in the afternoon ended with one of three suspects shooting a man and fleeing the scene.
The unnamed victim was taken to a nearby hospital with a gunshot wound to the upper body. His condition was not immediately known. The fleeing suspects led police on a high-speed pursuit into PHX. Officers apprehended two of the suspects, but the third was believed to be somewhere in the Terminal 4 parking garage. Police took the third suspect into custody shortly before 10 p.m. ET.
During the lockdown, no one was allowed into or out of Terminal 4 or its parking garage. The Phoenix Police Department warned people to avoid the area.
Images shared via social media showed passengers gathered inside the terminal with their luggage, all waiting for police to tell them it was safe to exit. Some images also show armed law enforcement searching the area.
PHX issued a statement during the lockdown saying that operations at Terminal 4 were being affected, but that takeoffs and landings were continuing. Passengers were later advised by PHX to not come to the airport if their flight was out of Terminal 4, as only flights that were already in the process of boarding when the lockdown began were allowed to depart. Operations continued normally at Terminals 2 and 3.
According to statistics from FlightView.com, 69 outbound flights had been delayed and 13 canceled by the time the terminal reopened. The FAA reported no ripple delays occurred.
Southwest Airlines confirmed experiencing a number of delays via Twitter. Travelers were urged to check their flight status before coming to PHX. According to several passenger reports via social media, flights were left waiting on the tarmac at PHX and a number of inbound flights were cancelled.
Air Canada, American Airlines, British Airways, Southwest Airlines, US Airways, Volaris and WestJet operate out of Terminal 4.
[Photo: Andrew Romanov/The Republic]
Makes me want to fly through Phoenix...not. The same place where someone recently waved a rifle at a woman and her child in an airport restaurant, the state where everyone is encouraged to buy as many guns as their budget will allow.
Sooo...if checking IDs against boarding passes and using the nude machines are effective airport security measures, why the need for a ock-down?