An air marshal fired a weapon on a jetway at Miami International Airport. Unclear who was hit or what the threat was.
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BREAKING: Shots Fired onboard Plane at Miami Airport
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Man who threatened to blow up bomb killed by federal marshal
By Herald staff
As dozens of passengers exited from an American Airlines flight at Miami International Airport this afternoon, one male passenger who threatened to blow up a bomb in the gateway was shot and killed by a federal air marshal, a government official said.
The 44-year-old U.S. citizen, whose name was not immediately released, claimed he had the bomb in a carry-on bag and tried to run away from a team of federal air marshals after they ordered him to the ground, according to the Transportation Security Administration.
One of the air marshals opened fire as the man reached into the bag.
Department of Homeland Security spokesman Brian Doyle said this is the first time an air marshal has shot at a passenger or suspect.
American Airlines flight 924 arrived from Medellin, Colombia, and was headed for Orlando, according to airport officials.
Federal Air Marshal spokesman David Adams recounted reports that the passenger argued with his wife during the Medellin-Miami leg of the flight, Herald news partner WFOR-CBS4 broadcast.
Television news stations showed police SWAT officers surrounding the plane. Bomb-sniffing dogs ran through luggage arrayed on the tarmac outside the plane
”I don’t know yet if the passenger had been on the plane and was getting off, or was starting to board the aircraft,” airline spokesman Tim Wagner said.
Airline spokeswoman Martha Pantin said that all passengers on the inbound Medellin flight had to leave the aircraft to clear Customs, even if they were continuing on to Orlando.
American chief operating officer Gerard Aprey, who was at The Miami Herald meeting executives when the shooting occured, declined to comment. He also wouldn’t elaborate on whether the airline has any additional, internal security at foreign airports such as Medellin.
Pantin said the passengers were taken to a secure area of the airport, and the airline is working to rebook them on later flights.
A passenger on the flight, Mary Gardner, told WTVJ-TV, that she saw a man running ”frantically” up the plane’s aisle before he was shot. A woman, apparently the man’s wife, said he suffered from bipolar disorder and had not taken his medication, Gardner said.
Gardner said four to five shots were fired. She could not see the shooting.
After the shooting, police boarded the plane and told the passengers to put their hands on their heads, Gardner said.
”It was quite scary,” she told the station via a cell phone. “They wouldn’t let you move. They wouldn’t let you get anything out of your bag.”
“Thank God everybody seems to be fine.”
According to American Airlines’ Web site, Flight 924 arrived from Medellin at 12:16 p.m. It was supposed to depart for Orlando at 2:18 p.m. The site says the flight status is delayed.
After the shooting, federal agents including the FBI headed immediately to MIA.
Some 133 passengers booked on the flight remained on board for questioning until about 3:30 p.m., when they began to disembark from the back of the plane and were transported by bus to the terminal, WFOR and NBC6-TV reported.
Passengers reported no panic on the plane, only prolonged tension, the reports said. Everyone was asked to keep their hands on their heads, and were not permitted to move or get anything out of their own luggage. Police eventually boarded the plane.
The aircraft, a Boeing 757, was parked at Gate D-42 at MIA.
Miami-Dade police, federal transportation officials and other law enforcement agencies responded to the incident.
Gate D-42 is secured, but the rest of Concourse D reopened after some flight delays.
Mark Harlan, manager of a Santa Clara, Calif., software startup, was inside the concourse waiting at the Gate D-35 for a 3:30 p.m. flight to Nassau when flight attendants and ticket-takers began rounding up passengers, telling them they had to leave the terminal.
Harlan said the response seemed confused: Employees took the waiting passengers outside and put them on a bus, only to bring them back inside five minutes later.
”They brought us back into the concourse in a very hurried manner,” Harlan said. “Everyone seemed very nervous, very confused. It was one of those things that it wasn’t clear what their response plan was supposed to be.”
”Now it’s just a sort of a state of `When am I going to get to my gate,” Harlan said.
Passengers were given no information about the incident and were clustered around television sets in the terminal, looking for news.
”What most people are doing at this point is looking at the TV and trying to figure out what the hell is going on,” Harlan said. “We’ve had a grand total of zero information.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.