Bomb threat at LAX turns out to be false alarm
Authorities investigated a bomb threat at Los Angeles International Airport on Saturday afternoon that caused a partial evacuation in some areas, but the incident turned out to be a false alarm, authorities said.
The FBI issued the warning to LAX officials around 2:18 p.m. that a white van parked by the curb between the Tom Bradley International and American Airlines terminals contained explosives, LAX police spokesman Rob Pedregon said.
A perimeter was set up and terminals 3 through 6 on the lower level near baggage claim were evacuated as a safety precaution, Pedregon said.
Police located a white vehicle that appeared to be a Department of Homeland Security van, he said.
“It’s not uncommon to have Department of Homeland and Custom and Border Protection vehicles in that area,” Pedregon said.
The bomb squad cleared the van but continued to check the surrounding areas, Pedregon said.
Arriving travelers were briefly diverted to the upper-level departure area. No flights were delayed.
No other information about the incident was released.
This holiday weekend is expected to be a busy one for LAX. The airport expects to serve 835,500 passengers through the Labor Day weekend, a 7% increase over last year’s total of 780,716, the record for that weekend, according to the airport.
The busiest day of the weekend was expected to be Friday, when an estimated 228,000 passengers passed through the airport. On Monday, about 216,700 passengers are expected to shuffle through, airport officials said.
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