Miami Airport Reopens After Bomb Scare; Scientist Thomas Butler Released

(Sept. 3) -- Miami's airport is back in full operation today after four terminals were ordered evacuated when a luggage screener spotted something suspicious in a passenger's bag. A 70-year-old scientist once acquitted of illegally transporting bubonic plague was questioned in the investigation, then released without charges.

Thomas Butler was charged with illegally transporting the deadly germ when he was a research professor at Texas Tech University in 2003. He was acquitted on all charges related to the plague, but convicted of fraud and served a two-year sentence, The Associated Press reported.

The FBI, which arrested Butler in 2003, said he cooperated fully after he arrived on a flight from the Middle East.

"He's being very cooperative," FBI agent Michael Leverock said at a news conference in Miami this morning.

Butler, a professor in Dominica, was arrested in 2003 after 30 vials of plague were missing from his university laboratory.

He was stopped by a screener today when a canister was discovered in his bag. According to the AP, canister was used for medical testing, and the FBI found that it was used to transport dead bacteria samples.

The security scare on the eve of the Labor Day holiday travel crunch forced the evacuation of four of Miami International Airport's six concourses and sent passengers and employees fleeing on foot amid huge traffic jams outside. All airport roads were closed, and incoming flights were rerouted to the two remaining concourses.

Guests at an airport hotel described having to drag their children out of bed and flee. "We were literally getting the boys ready because of a long day of traveling, trying to put them down, and then I heard someone knocking on the door, and we opened it and it was the Miami police saying, 'Just grab your room key and head across the street,'" an unidentified guest told WSVN-TV.

Bomb squad personnel scoured the two-mile-long airport complex for hours. Details were reported by several news agencies.

Sponsored Links

While the airport has reopened, some delays persisted because of a backlog of flights. Passengers are being encouraged to contact their airline for flight information.

Airport spokesman Greg Chin told the AP earlier that the bomb squad remained on the scene until about 4 a.m. this morning, and that about 1,500 people were scheduled for flights between then and 6 a.m. All concourses have reopened, he said.

Debbie Casanova was one of those stuck in traffic outside the airport, while she waited to pick up her husband from an arriving flight. "We have been sitting here for two hours," Casanova told CNN. "It is frustrating, but it is better to know everybody is safe."