'Written Threat' Prompts Large Police Presence At BWI Airport; Threat Deemed Not Credible
LINTHICUM, Md. (WJZ) -- A written threat prompted a large police presence at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport Monday night, officials said.
Southwest Airlines flight 2104 from Phoenix to Baltimore landed at BWI around 5:15 p.m., at which point law enforcement investigated what an airport spokesperson called a "suspicious message."
Specific details of the threat were not immediately available.
The plane had 101 passengers and crew members on board, the airport said.
"Out of an abundance of caution, the aircraft was parked at a remote area of the airfield," the airport said in a statement on Twitter. "Passengers were offloaded safely from the aircraft on to shuttle buses and brought to the airport terminal."
Officials later deemed the threat not to be credible.
"Our Crew followed protocol by notifying the appropriate authorities and moving the aircraft to a remote location while awaiting further instruction. The authorities promptly arrived and boarded the aircraft, transferring the 97 passengers and six Crewmembers to buses to be transferred to the terminal," a Southwest spokesperson said.
An update on Southwest Airlines flight 2104. pic.twitter.com/wRamJA12IA
— BWI Marshall Airport (@BWI_Airport) January 12, 2021
No injuries were reported.
Passengers on other flights said the news was unsettling.
"I don't know what people are thinking to do something like that... I'm just glad nothing more serious happened," traveler Bob Hicks, who was flying into BWI from Denver, said.
"(It's) definitely very scary, shocking, surprising," another traveler, Kieran Yeatman, said.
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