Lindbergh Terminal Closed After Suspicious Passenger Goes Missing

May 31, 2008

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Lindbergh Field’s Terminal 2 was shut down for nearly two hours Saturday after a would-be passenger left a screening area when authorities wanted to conduct a hand inspection of a bag, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration said.

The incident began about 10:30 a.m., and the terminal was reopened about 12:40 p.m., said TSA spokeswoman Carrie Harman.

Passengers who had already been screened had to leave the secured area, and passengers on one flight were deplaned and rescreened when a sweep of the terminal by TSA officers, canines and San Diego police was completed.

Harman said she did not know how many flights or passengers were affected.

The suspect bag had been through the initial X-ray screening, but TSA officers wanted to do a hand search of the bag.

“The passenger left the checkpoint before we were able to do that, so that prompted us to shut down the terminal,” she said.

Asked if the person ran from the checkpoint, Harman said, “there was no indication that someone ran away.” However, the person was not located, she said.

Harman said she could not disclose what was seen in the X-ray screening that prompted a call for the bag to be searched by hand. She said she did not immediately know if the would-be passenger was a man or a woman.

Harman said there also was an incident at Lindbergh’s Terminal 1 on Saturday when a female passenger who had already been through initial inspection inadvertently left before completing a secondary screening. Screening was suspended at one security checkpoint from 10:41 a.m. to 11:07 a.m. until the woman and her traveling companions were relocated and rescreened, Harman said.

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