‘unfounded’ Reports Of An Active Shooter Cause Chaos And Flight Delays At Las Vegas Airport
In the early hours of Sunday morning, several flights were delayed at Harry Reid International Airport after panicked travelers compromised security checkpoints at the airport.
As a result of a stampede, false reports of shooting quickly spread as a result of a stampede breaking out, according to police.
According to airport officials and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, a loud noise that occurred around 4:30 a.m. in Terminal 1 was the cause of panic, as some people believed they had heard gunshots.
There is a belief that the noise is the result of an unruly person who was taken into custody after being reported to the LVMPD.
As a result of the incident, airport officials described it as a “security incident.”
‘unfounded’ Reports Of An Active Shooter Cause Chaos And Flight Delays At Las Vegas Airport
Several concourses were cleared by security after the incident, according to airport officials.
The flights were held in the concourses of the airport, and all passengers who were in the airport had to exit the airport and be screened or re-screened through security as soon as they returned.
It is unclear whether there were any injuries reported by passengers who witnessed the panic. The panic was described as a “stampede” by those who witnessed it.
According to travelers, the incident caused massive lines to back up all the way to the parking garage as a result of the incident.
Before they were asked to re-screen, several travelers told FOX5 that they were able to walk through security unchecked because TSA agents had reportedly abandoned their posts during the panic, so they were able to proceed unchecked.
It is estimated that half of the security line dropped to the ground, according to airport traveler Christopher Neece to FOX5.
To get through security, the other half of the group started to step over those who were on the ground.
Either you ran with them or you got knocked down by them. In fact, when I arrived at the front of security, I found that there was not a single member of the TSA present.”
It can be heard in a video provided by another traveler that he says, “no one knows what’s happening.
We’re just piling through,” as he walks through the metal detectors with his luggage in hand as he goes through the metal detectors.
Therefore, the next question becomes: how is it that passengers have been able to pour through security without being vetted? Fox5 asked the TSA’s spokesperson for this region for information on what happened, as well as their emergency protocols, but we have not heard back as of the date of publication.
As Tawanna Malpress recalled, “people were running, people who were already in line to get through the TSA, people who were scrambling, they just ran through the metal detectors,” she said as she was attempting to travel back home to Orlando after getting married in Las Vegas last weekend.
According to her, it did actually sound like gunshots were being fired. There was a lot of noise in the airport, you could hear it throughout the entire facility… Suddenly, people began running everywhere, just running out of the airport, just running all over the airport, and my family and I just began hiding behind the kiosk machine in the airport.”
The woman said that she heard a loud noise when she was at Spirit Airline’s front desk to check her bags when she heard the noise.
It was said that employees began to panic and one of them screamed in fear.
There was a young lady who screamed, she worked for Spirit, she screamed to the top of her lungs, she was screaming, ‘Don’t do that!’. It is impossible for you to come back there in any way! As she screamed really loud, she was just screaming really loud… By the time that time comes, there will be a stampede of people,” said Malpass.
According to one man who showed us a photo, he said he took of a fellow passenger being escorted out on a stretcher, police have yet to share any information on reported injuries.
On a separate note, Malpass stated, “I saw two young ladies who were actually injured when the stampede took place.
The leg of one of them had a huge gash in it and it was bleeding profusely. There is a possibility that she was run over by a car. People were running everywhere, as I said earlier.
“To put it mildly, it was a wild ride,” Neece said at the end of the interview. My first act upon reaching my gate was to call my woman and tell her how much I loved her as soon as I got there.
That’s the scene we’re dealing with here. There was a sense of seriousness about it.”