Only three days after an empty bomb threat turned LSU’s campus into a frenzy, another bomb threat was reported at the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport on Thursday evening.
The airport’s terminal and parking garage were evacuated, and a car bomb was reported to be located in a black SUV parked in the garage, said East Baton Rouge Sheriff Sid Gautreaux.
“I literally just sat down at the gate, and they told everyone to get out of here; we have to evacuate the airport,” said Lenox Brown, accounting senior.
Brown, who was preparing to visit his girlfriend in Atlanta, said he sat outside after the evacuation until the evacuees were moved to a hangar. Airport authorities informed evacuees of the black SUV car bomb and asked any person with a black SUV to come forward for questioning, he said.
The airport’s incoming flights continued to land, but did not dock at the terminal, said airport spokesman Jim Caldwell. Those on-board the airplanes were eventually transported to the same hangar as the other evacuees.
Caldwell said the threat was reported between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m., and the FBI is involved in the investigation.
Noah Baker, a 23-year-old law student, was involved in the airport evacuation, as well as Monday’s campus exodus, and said the most recent evacuation was “easier” than the previous one. He had a two-hour evacuation from his classes at the Paul M. Hebert Law Center, located on the outskirts of campus.
“It’s kind of frustrating because between the hurricane and the bomb threat on Monday and now this, personally for me, it’s all really inconvenient,” Baker said.
Baker said none of the evacuees “really know what’s going on” and compared the evacuation to “being held hostage.”
Catherine Threlkeld / The Daily Reveille Officials respond to a bomb threat at the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012.
