SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — A passenger at San Diego International Airport prompted an evacuation of Terminal 2 by reaching around a plexiglass barrier to retrieve a bag that had been flagged for additional inspection, a spokeswoman with the Transportation Security Administration said Friday.
The incident Thursday afternoon halted flights and forced as many as 7,000 people to leave Terminal 2 for re-screening.
The carry-on bag was flagged by an explosives specialist for a search around 12:25 p.m. Thursday, TSA spokeswoman Lorie Dankers said. The bag was diverted onto another lane of the conveyor, but a male traveler reached around a barrier and took the bag before an agent could search it.
The man then walked into the secured area of the airport. Agents searched for the man, but were unable to find him, forcing the TSA to evacuate the terminal.
Dankers would not specify why the bag was flagged for additional screening. TSA scanners are designed to detect the kinds of organic materials used in explosives, but they can also be set off by harmless organic materials, such as food.
The TSA resumed operations Thursday following a sweep of the airport with dogs, but they were not able to find the passenger.
John Pistole, who served as administrator of the TSA from 2010 to 2014, told ABC 10News that investigators will be interested in finding the man, if they haven’t already.
Investigators will want to know if the man took the bag by accident, or if he snatched the bag to conceal prohibited or illegal items, he said. Investigators will also want to know whether the man was “probing” the security infrastructure to find weaknesses, something terrorists did before 9/11.
Federal investigators almost certainly know the man’s identity because he had to present identification at the document checking station before passing through the scanner, Pistole noted.
That means if agents haven’t found him yet, they will shortly, he said.
