Charleston International Airport reopens after suspicious package prompted evacuation
Charleston International Airport, the largest airport in South Carolina, has reopened after it was evacuated Wednesday afternoon.
Around 11:15 a.m., Transportation Security Administration inspectors alerted airport officials about a suspicious item and determined an evacuation of the terminal was necessary, according to airport spokesman Spencer Pryor.
Both employees and passengers were evacuated.
The airport tweeted news of its evacuation at 12:40 p.m. Pryor said the suspicious package was then removed from the terminal area, and members of the Charleston County Bomb Squad arrived on scene to inspect it.
All told, five outside agencies assisted the Charleston County Aviation Authority Police with the incident: Charleston County Sheriff, North Charleston Police Department, Berkeley County Sheriff, Dorchester County Sheriff and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division
Less than an hour later, at about 1:30 p.m., the airport reopened.
“The package, which was evaluated by the bomb squad, was not an explosive device,” a separate 2:08 p.m. tweet from the airport confirmed.
For hours, the evacuation orders impacted travel by air and by car.
According to online flight trackers, all flights to the airport were being held or diverted, citing security reasons.
Meanwhile, law enforcement diverted vehicles away from the airport as authorities investigated the package and passengers were cleared out of the terminal.
“For the safety of our travelers, staff followed all protocols on handling the suspicious package that was identified by a TSA agent,” a statement posted on the airport’s Twitter account said.
Repeated attempts to reach Charleston airport officials for further details about the evacuation that happened on Veteran’s Day were not immediately returned.
The evacuation temporarily impacted in-bound travel to the airport based in North Charleston.
Tyler Jones, a Charleston-based political strategist, was stranded in Miami while waiting to catch his flight back home to the Lowcountry because of the evacuation.
A video Jones provided showed a long line of people waiting to board a Charleston-bound flight.
Shortly after 2 p.m., he texted that he had been allowed to board the plane.
Others found themselves reevaluating travel plans as a result of the evacuation.
Jasmine Tepfer, 26, was visiting from Phoneix, Arizona. She and her boyfriend, Marques Burky, had landed in Charleston on Thursday to attend a friend’s wedding in Myrtle Beach.
When they arrived at the airport just after 12:40 p.m. Wednesday to catch a 2:30 p.m. flight back to Phoenix, Tepfer saw the blue lights of police cars.
As they neared the airport, Tepfer said an officer redirected them away from the airport and told them, “Airport’s closed. Everybody’s gone.”
Tepfer said she got no notifications on her phone or by email about the evacuation and how it was impacting flights like the one she and her boyfriend had booked. A friend they had stayed with during their trip drove them to the nearby Tanger Outlets to regroup.
Tepfer said she was worried. By missing their flight out of Charleston, they were guaranteed to miss their connecting flight in Washington, D.C. Her boyfriend might also miss a dentist appointment on Thursday that had taken months to get scheduled, she added.
“My boyfriend called United Airlines, and United didn’t even know the airport had canceled or delayed our flight,” Tepfer said. “He went back and forth with them for a while because they wanted to charge my boyfriend and I more than $200 to get a flight out the next day.”
Though Tepfer and Burky got their flight straightened out, Tepfer said it was frustrating. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the two traveled frequently.
“We’ve gone to Europe and never had some ordeal like this,” she said by phone.
In the end, they were able to get an 8 a.m. flight Thursday back to Phoenix.
Her boyfriend got his dentist appointment rescheduled for Friday. Tepfer bought her sister a “Simply Southern” shirt while shopping at Tanger outlets.
“A souvenir,” Tepfer said, laughing after a long day.
And both Tepfer and Burky would get one more night in the Charleston area with their friend who drove them to the airport in the rain.
Plus, Tepfer said, she was looking forward to having barbecue from Jim ‘N Nick’s for dinner.
This story was originally published November 11, 2020 at 1:23 PM.
