Sunday morning near midnight there was another terminal dump, this one at Anchorage. As one pilot said, lots of "airport drama".

http://www.adn.com/2012/10/14/266010...-security.html
"...No one was explaining what went wrong or how serious the breach was. In many American airports, a person walking the wrong way through a secured exit has been enough of a reason to evacuate an entire facility until the person could be found. Whether that was the case in Anchorage early Sunday could not be determined.

Typical was the case of passengers arriving on Alaska Airlines flight 143 from Portland. It landed early, a few minutes after midnight, but as the plane pulled toward the gate, it came up short. The pilot came on the intercom and told passengers that "some kind of airport drama" was underway and pointed to the flashing lights of police cars on the tarmac..."

UPDATED
Caused by a passenger making a reference to a bomb in a suitcase. Bad joke or idiot?

http://www.heraldstandard.com/united...8d1817765.html
"...He said the incident began a little after midnight (1 a.m. PDT) when the man, who was traveling with two male companions, made a reference to a bomb in a bag that had been checked into luggage.
Travelers were evacuated to another terminal, while police and others search the luggage. Parrott said that so far, no explosive has turned up..."

Huh. I saw it was Anchorage and just assumed a moose had wrong-wayed into the sterile area...

No kidding.

Oooh, ask me. I can tell you.

What a brilliant name for a spokesperson .

I was there -- in fact I'm writing this from Seattle still trying to make my way home after my 12 hour delayed UA flight and missed connections.
We were on the plane nursing bloody marys getting cozy for our red eye to SEA when a cop came on and told everyone to get off the immediatly. Escorted through the terminal and made to stand outside (yes that's right. OUTSIDE in Anchorage at 1 in the morning). After about an hour we were marched to the rental car building where everyone, passengers, airport workers, flight crews alike, camped out on the floor until 3:30 am. No water, nothing. I was on the phone with UA 1k line trying to rebook my connection. They insisted I'd be fine since my flight now showed a departure of 2:40am. That was at 2:35 and I had to convince them I knew what I was talking about. We couldn't leave because the road was blocked so no taxis or hotel shuttles allowed. Many people walked.
It was a nightmare.
All this because some (cannot use word i really want to type here) joked about a bomb in his suitcase. TSA and police really overreacted IMO.

He's not the spokesperson. John Parrott is the airport director. Good guy, too. (I just wish he had more authority over the sometimes infuriatingly mall-cop-syndrome-suffering Anchorage airport police.)

More details on a thread in the AS forum: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/alask...ormal-ops.html

One observation: the ADN reports that Friesema claims to have stated something "more to the effect of 'what if my friend's bag has a bomb in it?'" That's actually a legitimate question, even if a slightly dumb one to ask at an airport. That kind of changes the whole tenor of the debate. The airlines used to make such a big deal of asking you if you had packed your bag yourself and if anyone else had had access to your bag since you packed it. For them to then slap the wrong person's name on the bag tag seems to completely contradict that concern, and perhaps he was seriously trying to bring that concern to light.

Or perhaps not. The potential argument he has that it was a legitimate question seems to be overridden by his own (apparent) acknowledgment that it was all in jest. Interesting, nonetheless.

My first thought on reading this was, "He should've known better than to joke about bombs at the airport."

Then I remembered how much I hate having to be civil when I'm getting groped--how fear of retaliation keeps me from speaking out against it as forcefully as I would like. TSA is attempting to quash my freedom of speech, and that angers me! I am angry on Mr. Friesema's behalf, too. What does it matter if he says the word "bomb" in an airport? As long as he's not bringing a bomb on board, what harm does it do to say that word? There was more harm in the terminal dump than in him saying "bomb." Also, would there have been a terminal dump if he'd suggested his friend's bag had "something illegal" or "a surprise" in it? I want to go to an airport now and just chant "bomb" over and over until it loses its power.

Now yelling "bomb" is a different story.

Apologies for misrepresentation.

I just wish that someone, director or spokesperson, would give an honest account sometime.

"Some brain-dead moron joked about a bomb. We know there's no threat but standard procedure is we now have to waste everyone's time pretending there is one. It lets the security staff puff out their chests, strut around and feel important".

WCHA Referee Arrested, Suspended After Airport Threat

A Western Collegiate Hockey Association referee who was arrested on state and federal charges Sunday after making a comment about a bomb in a bag at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport has been "suspended indefinitely," the association said Monday.

Men's referee Pete Friesema, a 44-year-old from Highland Ranch, Colo., has been suspended pending a review of the incident by the WCHA.

Let the witch hunting begin!

No kidding.

Pete Friesema saw something (an Alaska Airlines agent putting Friesema's bag tag on somebody else's luggage), so he said something ("what if my friend's bag has a bomb in it?").... and now Friesema's life is likely ruined.

Instead of bomb, what if he had said "What if my friend's bag has (drugs, kiddie porn, a gun, etc.) in it?", would he be in the same amount of trouble? He has a valid point insisting his bag is tagged properly. What if his friend is a drug smuggler? The TSA says they aren't looking for drugs, but they like to let people know when they find them.

Bomb was a poor word to use, but talk about overreacting. Couldn't the airline worker have just called the police over, since the guy was standing there after dropping off his bag? I don't see why they needed to dump the terminal in this case. They know where the bag in question is.

here's the latest news report:

http://www.adn.com/2012/10/15/266157...a-decided.html

"...An evacuation isn't necessarily mandatory when someone says the word "bomb" or makes a threat at the airport, he said.

"There is discretion involved," he said. "There's judgment involved."

In this case, the Alaska Airlines agent alerted her supervisor and a chain of command that ultimately led to airport police making the decision to evacuate.

"When there is a perceived threat to the safety of the traveling public our first response is to attempt to remove the public from that danger," Parrott said.

Some passengers and online critics have said that the evacuation was a costly overreaction.

Officials err on the side of caution, Parrott said.

"We're certainly open to criticism if people believe we overreact, but I can live with that a lot easier than the potential of under-reacting," he said..."

Based on my experience related here, this very well could have happened to me.

They HAVE to over-react to teach EVERYBODY the lesson. It's a behavior-modification tactic, not a serious concern for the public's safety.

In their bizarro universe, bad guys LOVE to call attention to themselves by discussing explosives in front of airline and security staff, suicide bombers check their explosives into the baggage hold and then get on the same flight, and t-shirt pictures of weapons suddenly take physical form and can be used to do harm.

Happens in the movies, and they believe that stuff verbatim.

Sept. 11, 2001 was a very exciting time albeit horrific. It is what the public servic styles live for. Firemen would rather fight a fire than look at 2 morons in a car accident. They live for the adrenaline rush from the fire - not polishing their truck.

The police departments have become more military in they appearance and demeanor. This gives them another reason to act out on their training. When I was a little boy I remember police as someone to trust and that were generally viewed as a kind person, now most are one step from Gestapo or Stazi officers. To shut down the airport with no regard to the welfare (underdressed people forced outside) is no surprise. If the alleged weapon was inside the baggage handling area, it would have to be a nuke to injure anyone in the warm ticketing area. It all seems like morbid overreaction. I'm pretty sure a lead and plutonium nuke would be over the 50 lb. bag limit. Plutonium has over 3 times the atomic weight of lead, it doesn't take much to reach 50 lbs.