Terminal evacuated after man flees security check point

Monday, March 20, 2000 | 9:45 a.m.

A man who set off an airport security system and then fled forced the evacuation of an entire terminal and made some planes sit on the runway for almost two hours Saturday.

"It was prudent for us to go ahead and evacuate the terminal to see if we could locate this individual," said Scott Russell, spokesman for McCarran International Airport.

The man was never found.

Russell said the man set off a security checkpoint when he walked through it about 10:35 a.m., but then refused to be checked again. He got onto a tram to the D terminal.

Security officers notified +police+ and they determined that the D terminal and its 28 gates should be evacuated, he said.

Passengers waiting for their planes were brought back to the main terminal by the tram and then had to go through security again. Planes that had landed were forced to sit on the runway until the terminal was searched. Passengers who were boarding were also taken back to the main terminal so the planes could be searched.

"The whole area was empty," Russell said.

Passengers were allowed to return to the D gates about 12:20 p.m.

"Some people may have missed planes," he said.

Russell said the man would have been on the tram back to the main terminal and would have been forced to go through security then. He said the man probably left the airport after that.