Police release scientist in Miami airport scare

9/03/2010 10:10:10 AM

MIAMI – Investigators on Friday released a scientist detained at Miami International Airport after screeners spotted a metal canister in his luggage that looked like a pipe bomb, prompting an evacuation, a senior law enforcement official.

The official told The Associated Press that no charges were filed against the 70-year-old man and he was allowed to continue his trip. The official requested anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information.

Neither the professor's name nor his itinerary has been released. The man is an American citizen and was "very cooperative," FBI agent Michael Leverock said at a news conference in Miami.

The metal canister that sparked concern was a legitimate experiment, said another government official who also requested anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation.

That official said the man has a prior arrest record related to biological material and is a professor at Ross University in Dominica on a teaching assignment in Saudi Arabia. The professor told law enforcement that the metal canister was used for medical testing, and the FBI found that it was used to transport dead bacteria samples, the official said.

Most of the airport was shut down Thursday night after officials found the canister in the scientist's bag. A Homeland Security spokesman said at first it looked like a pipe bomb, but no explosives were found.

A police bomb squad spent hours scouring the airport and passengers had to be evacuated from four of the airport's six concourses and airport roadways were closed down, police and airport officials said. They described the shutdown of the concourses as a public safety precaution.

The airport fully reopened just after 4 a.m. Friday before the first scheduled morning departures, which signaled the start of the peak Labor Day weekend.

"Everything's back to normal," airport spokesman Greg Chin told The Associated Press.

Passengers, workers and others were allowed back in just as the airport was expecting the first of 1,500 passengers on flights between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m. alone — and more thereafter.

The Miami International Airport Hotel, which is located near the airport's international terminal, was also evacuated, Chin said.

The Transportation Security Administration declined to identify the passenger, saying in a terse statement that the screener spotted something suspicious in a checked back at about 9 p.m. Thursday.

Chin said between 100 and 200 passengers were evacuated initially.

"I'm still not sure how many flights came in during this time, but any that did were relocated to the eastern or western ends of the airport," Chin said, adding parts of Concourses D and J remained open to flights while the evacuation order was in effect for remaining areas.

Lennox Lewis, was waiting to fly to Barbados later Friday morning in one of the four concourses that had been closed.

He said the Miami airport is "one of the most stringent" to get through because he has to be fingerprinted and have his picture taken at customs.

"Traveling right now is a pain but you have to do it," said 39-year-old Lewis, who was flying with his two small children after a trip to North Carolina and Disney World. "I don't get overly worried that people will do stupid things."