"Package spurs SFO terminal shutdown"

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Package spurs terminal shutdown
The San Francisco (CA) Examiner


Parts of San Francisco International Airport's Inter-national Terminal were
evacuated for nearly an hour Monday morning after bomb-sniffing dogs
indicated that a suspicious package contained explosives.

But the suspicious device turned out to be nothing more than diagrams of
solar cells, the ink from which confused the dogs, officials reported. They
said the bomb scare did not delay any flights.

The bomb scare started when a passenger approached an airport police officer
and reported an unattended package near the escalators in the International
Terminal, Officer Dianne McKevitt said Monday.

The airport officer, who was working with an explosives-detecting dog, had
the dog sniff the package, described as a black tube with green tape. The
dog sat down after smelling the tube, an indication that it found something
suspect. Another dog was called in, McKevitt said, and that dog sat as well.
"Now you've got two dogs sitting, so you've got to pay attention," McKevitt
said.

A bomb squad was called in while about 200 passengers and employees were
evacuated from the areas around the escalators, McKevitt said. The area was
closed from about 10:45 to about 11:35 a.m., McKevitt said.

The package belonged to a solar energy expert and contained diagrams the man
used in presentations at conferences, McKevitt said. When he returned after
leaving it unattended to see police activity around his package, the man
told officers the package was his and what was in it, she said - but the
officers couldn't leave anything to chance.

The dogs apparently smelled a strong chemical scent from the inky diagrams,
and mistook it for explosive chemicals, she said.

The man, who had apparently left the package alone while he went to check
in, was not charged with any wrongdoing, McKevitt said.

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