Two U.S. airports partly evacuated on false alarms
Test images of guns trip up baggage screeners at Dulles, Miami
From Mike M. Ahlers
CNN
(CNN) -- Twice in as many days security personnel have partly evacuated airports after seeing what appeared to be guns on X-ray monitors -- only to learn that they were test images designed to check screeners' vigilance.
The first incident happened Thursday evening at Dulles International Airport near Washington, when screeners saw a gun and couldn't determine whether the image was real or a test image.
Only after the main terminal was evacuated and passengers were re-screened did authorities determine the image was a test.
On Friday, four concourses at Miami International Airport were evacuated when screeners saw a gun image, which again turned out to be a test.
For years, airport security personnel -- and now the Transportation Security Administration -- have used Threat Image Projection to test the performance of screeners. T.I.P. computer software discreetly projects images of guns, knives and other weapons onto screener's monitors.
Normally, a screener can quickly check to see if the projected image is real or a test image. It was unclear what went wrong this week.
It was also unclear whether the back-to-back incidents were coincidental or the result of software changes or some other circumstance.
A T.S.A. spokeswoman could recall no other instance in which a T.I.P. software glitch led to an airport evacuation.
The spokeswoman, Lauren Stover, said the Miami incident happened around 1:20 p.m. when a screener detected what was believed to be a firearm on the X-ray machine in the D Concourse.
When the screener went to inspect the bag, the screener couldn't locate the it, leaving them to believe the bag had got through to the secure area of the airport, Stover said.
Concourses A through D were evacuated and passengers were rescreened. The evacuation caused some flights to be delayed, Stover said, but she was uncertain how many.
