AIRPORT--A false security threat shut down Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA), crippled Cole Bay/Simpson Bay traffic and grounded flights out of St. Maarten on Friday evening.

Airport security evacuated hundreds of travellers, their families, PJIA staff and vendors from the terminal after an anonymous caller is said to have reported a bomb in the building at 5:47pm. Security corralled them in the parking lot opposite the terminal.

Officials lifted the emergency status at 11:45pm after thorough checks in and around the PJIA terminal found nothing “that would pose a security threat,” Government Information Services (GIS) reported.

PJIA reopens today, Saturday, at 7:00am. 

Some 25 flights were scheduled to enter and leave PJIA between 6:00pm and midnight, according to flight-monitoring Website www.sxmarrivaltimes.com .

Travellers and residents felt inconvenienced by authorities, who turned away drivers in front of a Simpson Bay restaurant and at the Maho roundabout, and banned walking in front of the terminal building.

Traffic froze on either side of the airport as police ordered drivers to turn around for their own safety.

A young mother worried about her infant daughter’s return on a flight from Curaçao that had been cancelled while authorities searched the building for danger.

Twelve firemen swept the terminal.

They combed every section from the basement to the parking lot and tarmac in response to the threat. It took nearly six hours of searching before they gave the green light to airport officials to reopen the terminal.

KLM, Dutch Antillean Express (DAE) and US Airways flights were grounded. Crews ordered passengers off the planes minutes after they boarded. “We were just finished boarding US Airways and we were on KLM when we got the call,” a worker said.

Initial reports reaching The Daily Herald said a person had threatened a plane with a bomb. However, judging by authorities’ response – more than a dozen police, fire and EMS cars rushing to the airport and almost-immediate evacuation – the threat was more severe, said a source who is familiar with airport security.

“If it was on an airplane, then the tower would’ve called it,” the person said. After air traffic controllers report a threat on a plane, procedure for responding to it is three-tiered: isolate the suspect aircraft, detain the person/persons making the threat, and inspect the plane for possible dangers: explosives, gases, and so on.

GIS said the caller had warned of a “security threat” to the airport, but didn’t say whether “it was in the terminal building or on an aircraft.”

“The result of the operation that started at 5:47pm and ended at 11:30pm is that nothing was found that would pose a security threat,” GIS said. Officials refused to say what exactly the caller had said that had warranted a complete shutdown of the airport.

More than 250 passengers had been shuttled out of Simpson Bay to nearby hotels by 9:30pm, a car-rental agent told this newspaper. He was “about to leave work when this happened.”

Two young women were headed to their shifts at Atlantis Casino in Cupecoy when fire, ambulance and police teams raced to the airport. On separate buses, they both noticed the wail of sirens rushing past them, but didn’t expect it to interrupt their day’s plans. “I was just coming down to work and I was already late,” one woman said.

Unfazed by the scare, the women stood under lampposts between the terminal and Winair’s ticket office applying makeup from handheld kits. They still planned to go to work.

Many guests staying at Sonesta Maho Resort and other resorts and condos were forced to go through French St. Martin because the road was blocked. A model performing at a fashion show at a nightclub couldn’t get to the club. 

Customers at Crazy Thyme restaurant, which is opposite PJIA, stayed and ate. Police tried to warn them of danger, but they wouldn’t budge. A French couple eating at the restaurant was curious about the search, but not bothered enough to give up their meal. Diners came and went in the more than three hours this newspaper covered the search.

Others watched from the roadside or sat on docks above Simpson Bay Lagoon.

A woman walked into the airport to meet her sister and two-year-old daughter as security escorted everyone out of the building. “We were coming in and everybody was rushing out,” the woman said.

This newspaper did not know up to press time how flights would be reorganised to accommodate last night’s passengers and persons leaving in the days ahead. At least one airline offered passengers vouchers for new flights.

Acting Lt. Governor Millicent Acuña Lopez-de Weever commended disaster management teams for their response. She was on site along with heads of police, the Prosecutor’s Office and the airport. GIS said only that authorities were trying to find out who had made the call. “Law enforcement agencies will continue to carry out their investigation with respect to the source of the security threat,” GIS said.