All Clear Order at Newark Airport After Bomb Scare
Police probe possible bomb at Newark Airport.
Dec. 20, 2010— -- The image of a flat-screen monitor seen on a baggage screening machine triggered a bomb scare that shut down a terminal at Newark, New Jersey's Liberty International Airport, authorities said as they announced the investigation was over and the termina reopenedl.
When viewed by TSA employees at the screening facility, the mass of the monitor caused alarm and triggered a response by the Essex County Bomb Squad, FBI and Port Authority Police.
After an investigation it was determined that the suspicious image was a computer monitor emitting low level radiation as is normal, according to the FBI.
The monitor was traveling in checked baggage belonging to a passenger slated to be on the same flight.
"The device is being shipped to the same destination as its owner who is already in flight," said FBI agent Bryan Travers from the Newark Field Division. "It appears there is no cause for alarm, but authorities are taking the necessary precautions to be certain."
The possible device was discovered behind a counter, officials from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey told ABC News, and employees alerted Transportation Security Administration Bomb Appraisal Officers, who began their investigation shortly after 7:00 a.m.
Police halted incoming and outgoing vehicle traffic to the airport as the investigation got underway and the Essex County, New Jersey, bomb squad rushed to the scene. The rest of the airport remains open at this time.
This is the busiest travel week of the year and authorities are on high alert for possible terror incidents..
British police said on Monday they had arrested 12 men in a large-scale counter-terrorism operation.
West Midlands police told Reuters they had detained five men from Cardiff in Wales, four from Stoke in central England and three from London.
"They've all been held on suspicion of the commission, preparation, or instigation of an act of terrorism in the U.K," a police spokesman said. The suspects, aged between 17 and 28, were detained by unarmed officers at around 0500 GMT (12 a.m. ET), police told Reuters.
