"Two Concourses At MIA Partially Closed"

Thursday, December 23, 2004

Pepper spray disrupts Miami International Airport
By Ken Kaye and Ihosvani Rodriguez 
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel


A can of pepper spray, nonchalantly tossed into a trash bin, caused about a
half-hour of disruption at Miami International Airport on Thursday, though
it posed no serious danger, security officials said.

Passengers were cordoned off from sections of Concourses F and G, as well as
parts of the baggage-claim areas, while Miami-Dade County firefighters tried
to determine if a dangerous chemical agent was in the air.

"The bottom line is no one was evacuated and no one was transported to the
hospital," said Lauren Stover, spokeswoman for the Transportation Security
Administration.

The incident started at about 7:30 a.m., when a TSA employee found what
appeared to be more than 4 ounces of pepper spray, the amount passengers are
permitted to take on an aircraft.

The employee turned the canister over to a Delta Airlines representative, as
required by regulations on hazardous materials, and the airline employee
tossed it into a trash bin, Stover said.

A few hours later, Stover said, transportation screeners complained of a
strange smell. She said no one could determine if in fact it was attributed
to pepper spray or construction in the area but one screener reported
feeling ill.

Authorities do not know if the canister was taken from a passenger or
baggage, and it was not clear how the incident escalated, Stover said.
Airport officials said some passengers and screeners thought they smelled
the spray in the air.

The fire department was called to inspect for fumes and, at 10:40 a.m.,
sections of the concourses and baggage-claim area were closed off to
passengers.

Sgt. Joe Wyche of the Miami-Dade Police Department said a handful of
passengers began complaining about itchy eyes and breathing problems.
Paramedics treated at the scene an elderly passenger who said she was having
problems breathing. Wyche said officials ordered the surrounding areas
cordoned off

"When you have so many people at a time like this, you can't take any
chances," Wyche said. "We went in, investigated it, and everything was back
to normal in less than an hour."

Joe Mendoza, who was working the counter for Enterprise Rent-A-Car near the
baggage-claim area, was among the first to be evacuated. Mendoza said he saw
and heard people breaking into coughing fits throughout the morning, but
thought it was people who had colds like him. Later, he saw security
officials calmly asking everyone to leave the area.

"I couldn't smell anything because I've been sick," Mendoza said. "Everyone
was pretty calm, even the cops. But in the back of my mind I was wondering,
`What if this was anthrax or something?'"

But officials were quick to rule out an act of terrorism.

No security checkpoints were closed down and no flights were delayed,
airport spokesman Marc Henderson said.

Thursday's incident paled in comparison to a similar pepper-spray scare at
the airport in 2002. In that incident, 43 people were treated at MIA's
concourse B after a pilot's pepper spray canister was set off after it was
tossed into a storage bin.


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