Ontario Airport Terminal Evacuated

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SOURCE: KABC-TV Los Angeles
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/news/090304_nw_terminal_evac.html

Ontario Airport Terminal Evacuated

ONTARIO ? In the midst of the Labor Day getaway crush, hundreds of
passengers were evacuated from a terminal at Ontario International
Airport Friday afternoon after an explosives scanner detected something
suspicious in a check-in bag, a spokeswoman said.

One person was held for questioning. Both floors of Terminal 4 were
evacuated at 11:46 a.m. after the machine "detected a suspicious
luggage" that was destined for a Southwest Airlines flight, airport
spokeswoman Maria Fermin said.

She did not know how many people were involved in the evacuation, but
"considering it's a Labor Day weekend, those numbers should be very
high," she said.

Televised news reports showed hundreds of people milling around the
outside of the terminal as well as five jetliners sitting on the tarmac.

Fermin said she did not know how many flights were disrupted.

A person was detained for questioning and police, fire, canine and bomb
squad crews were examining the bag, she said.

Passengers aboard a Southwest plane from Oakland, who arrived shortly
before 1 p.m., were told there had been a security breach and they would
not be able to deplane for at least an hour.

"We've been here longer than we flew," Linda Giacomi, 59, of Orinda,
said by cell phone. "People are getting ticked off."

She and her family had arrived to attend memorial services for her
elderly uncle and aunt, who died earlier this year, and to attend her
father's 95th birthday party that evening.

The family chose to fly to avoid heavy holiday traffic.

"My husband said, 'Let's just drive down, it's sure gonna be a lot
easier,' and I said, 'No, no,no the highway's gonna be just as bad.
Let's fly down,"' she said.

In August 2003, part of Terminal 4 was evacuated after an explosives
scanner alerted authorities to luggage belonging to a woman headed to
San Jose.

Bomb-sniffing dogs reacted in such a way that authorities suspected the
cans might contain explosives - so the suitcase was blown up.

It was later learned that the cans contained imported Indian pickles.

Ontario is 46 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.

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