A false alarm caused panic at Los Angeles International Airport Sunday night. Reports of an active shooter triggered panicked evacuations.
A JetBlue flight from LAX to Buffalo, the only non-stop flight between the two cities, landed on time at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport Monday morning. Even though they were in another terminal, passengers on the flight still noticed some big problems Sunday night at LAX.
Passengers were seen running from the terminal in widespread panic.
A search through terminals brought no evidence of a gunman or shots fired and police say they are investigating the source of some loud noises. Everything reopened but massive backups faced travelers in their cars trying to enter the airport and in security lines. A ground stop was initiated for flights departing LAX for 20 minutes. Now, the airport is trying to get things back on track.
Traffic into the airport was jammed and passengers were re-screened before boarding flights.
"As we drove up to get in the baggage claim to check the bags and get into security, we saw all these sirens and police cars everywhere, and we were like, 'OK, was there an accident? What's up with that?' We didn't really know until after the fact, but the TSA checkpoint was nuts, and that would explain why we didn't actually see a shooting happen. We were just told that someone dressed as Zorro was arrested," said Kirstin Ariel of Syracuse.
The man in the Zorro costume was apprehended and questioned by authorities. Law enforcement surrounded the man as he puts up his hands. Apparently there's no connection between him and the sounds heard Sunday night.