A terminal was evacuated at Newark Liberty International Airport Monday evening after a panicked airline worker apparently screamed “evacuate” and some passengers thought there was an active shooter at the airport.
The worker also hit an alarm that sounded across the entire terminal, leaving passengers trying to figure out what was going on.
Passengers left bags behind and ran for exits as police rushed into the terminal. Between 150-200 ended up pouring out of Gate 37 onto the tarmac.
Sports writer David Lombardi was in the terminal at the time.
He tweeted that it was an “insane situation” and that the airport was in a state of “confusion and chaos” as events unfolded.
Lombardi later tweeted that apparently an Alaska Airlines employee saw 2 men she deemed suspicious and made a scene about it. He said her coworkers didn’t deem the men suspicious and the employee “began to have a breakdown.”
About an hour later the airport tweeted out that it was determined that there was no threat in the terminal. All passengers and employees were being rescreened as a precaution, causing further delays at the airport.
Insane situation here at Newark Airport. They just told us all to evacuate and whole terminal scattered. Bags left behind. I initially thought it was an active shooter. Maybe a bomb threat. Confusion and chaos pic.twitter.com/eEAJusrXK8
— David Lombardi (@LombardiHimself) September 3, 2019
Newark update: They’re letting us back in the airport. Absolute chaos. People looking for their things. I’ve never seen anything like this. Terrible. Just terrible. pic.twitter.com/N0euy2Jb99
— Erin Fors (@forsie) September 3, 2019
There Employees Are trained For Any unusual
Experience
Very sad That the federal Government does not
Demand Bettter training