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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| San Juan Airport Shuttered for an Hour |
| 2004-10-07 |
| San Juan's international airport was closed for more than an hour Thursday morning after bomb-sniffing dogs alerted police to a suspicious piece of luggage, authorities said. The luggage was abandoned in the American Airlines terminal and an X-ray check determined it contained an unknown mass with connected cables, said Fernando Diaz, security director at the Luis Munoz Marin International Airport. A police anti-bomb unit analyzed the contents of the luggage and authorities determined it was non-explosive. The airport reopened after a female passenger claimed the luggage, saying it was a laptop computer, police said. Airport authorities blocked departures for more than an hour, but arrivals continued during the shutdown, Diaz said. Police cut off roads leading to the airport, creating a massive traffic jam. The airport, a hub in the Caribbean that provides connections to most islands in the region, handles 500 daily flights, airport general manager Fred Sosa said. Sosa could not say how many flights or passengers were affected. |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |