People ran past security checkpoints away from Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport Terminal 2 on Tuesday after false reports of an active shooter. The terminal was evacuated, leading to flight delays as passengers were forced to go through security checkpoints again.
The incident started about 2:10 p.m., when a couple’s two laptops overheated in carry-on luggage and apparently made noise that resembled gunshots or fireworks, CBS Honolulu affiliate KGMB reports. False reports of an active shooter sent passengers running toward the exits and ducking under chairs.
The Department of Transportation tweeted 20 minutes later that there was “NO active shooter situation at the airport.”
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Terrified passengers posted video and tweets of the chaos at the airport. “Never been more scared in my life,” one passenger wrote on Twitter. Another said people were “screaming for their lives like what you see in a horror movie.”
Leslie Ryan was on board an American Airlines flight to Los Angeles with her husband and two children when they were all ordered to get off the plane and go back through the security line.
Two hours later she was still waiting to go through security. She said hundreds of passengers around her in the airport’s open-air lobby were doing the same. “It’s hot and we finally got a little water,” Ryan said.
People were spilling out onto the curb and sidewalk, she said.
Ryan said airport vendors and shops had to shut down and send their employees out to be rescreened as well.
United Airlines said it delayed four flights to provide passengers with enough time to go through security screening and board their planes.
