Suspicious item found in passengers carry on causes evacuation at airport

Okay, thanks ABC4 News for the prompt follow up on "An" grenade, inert though it was later found to be. In light of those newly revealed facts, I respectfully withdraw my intentionally facetious comment below with respect to "contraband Twinkies," but not with respect to the remainder of my comment regarding the senseless humiliation the young girl bound in a wheelchair was forced to suffer at the hands of the TSA. But as far as discovering what appeared to have been a "live" grenade at Salt Lake International, I concur that their action was indeed reasonable. But until ALL of the relevant facts of that incident become known, such as why this person was attempting to board a commercial aircraft with an inert grenade in his carry-on luggage, further comment on my part would be speculation only. However, having said that, and since my paternal step-grandfather fought in the Spanish-American War in Cuba, I have some "inert" artillery shells he gave me as souvenirs of that event as a young child. And although inert (having been physically "deactivated"), they are genuine in every other respect of both weight and appearance. Perhaps the person who is now under arrest for this latest incident is guilty of nothing more than attempting to transport a "souvenir" inert grenade for some equally innocent purpose. So please keep us informed of those details as they become available. I sense there's a great learning experience here for all of us as those details become known, as this person obviously knew an inert grenade is harmless. But his common sense in attempting to transport it in his carry-on luggage on a commercial airliner clearly remains open to question. Let's hope it all turns out to be nothing more than poor judgment on his part.

I tend to agree with FTT's comment below. I guess they're referring to those guys who wear shirts that say, "I'm a bomb technician -- if you see me running, try to keep up!" But when I was a kid, their counterparts were called, "The Keystone Cops." They probably confiscated some little old lady's contraband Twinkies she was attempting to smuggle on board as a Christmas treat for her grandkids, which would explain why there's seldom any follow-up on these dramatic, heart-stopping "incidents." All this could seemingly serve as the script for a novel new movie entitled, "The Chinese Fire Drill." I only make light of all this because of the equally absurd recent incident at another airport where a young girl in a wheelchair -- who suffered from some debilitating disease like muscular dystrophy -- was publicly detained and humiliated to tears by another bunch of overblown TSA agents because they reportedly "detected bomb-making residue on her hands." I won't comment further on that disgusting incident, except to say that I sure as hell no longer live in the same country I grew up in. Heaven forbid that I should fail a urinalysis conducted by the TSA showing "conclusive evidence" of cocaine if only because I ate a roll for breakfast containing a few poppy seeds. But I would surely be found guilty in the court of public opinion because it was reported as "fact" in the local news. So yes, ABC4 News, please DO follow up on that "incident" and give us the facts of what actually happened, or at least as they were reported to you by the TSA, drunken with power though they well may be.

Ridiculous. There hasn't been one real threat carried by a passenger that has been found by the TSA.