Travelers and airport workers are on edge in the wake of the Brussels terrorist attacks that included two explosions at the Brussels airport.
At Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on Wednesday morning, a suspicious bag snowballed into an evacuation of the terminal and rumors of an active shooter. There was no active shooter and the bag was cleared by officials, but the incident caused a scare and delayed some travelers as the crowd queued up in long lines to get through security in the aftermath.
During the incident, a passenger is suspected to have yelled “active shooter,” though there was no shooter, according to Atlanta Police Department airport precinct Major Lane Hagin.
“We’re going to review the video to see,” Hagin said. He said it’s possible that there could be charges against the person who yelled. “Of course in light of the incidents yesterday, people are … a little bit more worried.”
Hartsfield-Jackson said its officials are working with law enforcement to investigate the incident.
“We still stay on top of that for sure,” Hagin said. “We’re going to have a follow-up meeting with our partners,” including airport and airline officials, “to see what exactly happened and if we can improve, what that would be.”
The incident caused delays averaging 30 minutes affecting six flights on Delta Air Lines, the largest carrier at Hartsfield-Jackson, due to long security lines.
And such scares could cause even more delays for travelers already plagued with long security lines at Hartsfield-Jackson. Lines for security checkpoints stretched through the terminal as the backup of travelers who were delayed rushed to get to flights.
The incident comes as Hartsfield-Jackson remains on “heightened alert” and Atlanta police add officers at the airport, drawing from its downtown precinct special operations section and its tactical team carrying long guns.
“We’re observing people even before they get to the airport,” with police cars at the perimeter, out on patrol on the airport roadways, at the curbside and in the terminal, Hagin said.
The Department of Homeland Security is also deploying extra security to major U.S. airports, as well as to rail and transit stations, in the wake of the Brussels attacks. Armed Homeland Security officers patrol the Atlanta airport’s terminal areas.
The incident Wednesday morning at Hartsfield-Jackson started with an unattended bag, which then got a positive hit from an inspection by a canine explosives unit at 9:41 a.m.
“Out of an abundance of caution, the North and South terminals at ATL were evacuated,” according to the airport. The bag was cleared by 10:03 a.m. and passengers returned to the terminal.
Hagin said afterward that it was probably medication in the bag that triggered the canine alert. He said police did not intend to evacuate the entire terminal, but instead wanted to just clear the area around the bag.
“I don’t know if it was airline employees or who that asked them to evacuate, but it was not the Atlanta police,” Hagin said.
Airline consumer organization FlyersRights.org in a written statement said it believes airport security “needs to be tightened with perimeter bomb and weapons detection or else more airport bombings are likely to follow.”
U.S. Rep. John Katko (R-NY), a member of the House committee on Homeland Security and chair of the subcommittee on transportation security, issued a statement saying he has “looked extensively at airport security vulnerabilities and worked both to combat foreign terrorist travel and to close global counterterrorism gaps. We have moved important reforms through the House, but it is clear that we must redouble our efforts in Congress.”
Separately, Hartsfield-Jackson before the Brussels attacks had launched an effort to replace explosives detection equipment used for screening of checked baggage. Machines will be replaced with new CTX 9800 models.
The Brussels airport, where the terminal is damaged and became the scene of a forensics investigation, remains closed through Friday.
The airport said in a statement on its website that it cannot access the building due to the forensics investigation, and until then, “we are unable to confirm when operations at the airport can be resumed.”
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