Citizen Staff
Two pieces of unattended luggage caused the evacuation of Key West International Airport for about an hour Sunday afternoon.
The incident caused landing passengers to sit on the tarmac until the airport was re-opened, according to airport and security officials, although the air traffic control tower reported no flight delays.
The luggage, left by a glass wall separating the US Airways counter from the security gate, was discovered around 2:10 p.m., airport general manager Peter Horton said.
Following federal Transportation Security Administration procedures, a bomb technician from the Monroe County Sheriff's Office was called in when the owners of the bags could not be found, Horton said.
An airport security official said the names on the luggage did not match names from passenger lists from the last two days.
Travelers and workers at the airport were herded behind a green chain link fence across the airport parking lot from the terminal, where passengers huddled until the airport re-opened shortly after 3 p.m.
"The bomb tech [examined] the bags and determined there was nothing in them other than clothes," said Horton, adding that the bags belonged to a pair of females who were not from Key West.
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BTTT!
With the TSA, a presumption of incompetence is always in order.