A LaGuardia terminal was partially evacuated on Tuesday after a worker claimed that a piece of luggage was smoking, shortly before it was set to be loaded onto a plane. The luggage was deemed harmless after examination.
According to NBC 4, the luggage was removed from the area and taken elsewhere to be examined by a bomb squad. The plane that the luggage was set to go on also had to be called back to the gate after it started to leave.
No one else seemed to have witnessed the smoke though, reports New York Daily News. Port Authority spokesman Joe Pentangelo said, "When the Port Authority cops got there, there was no smoke."
The terminal was quickly given the all-clear and reopened. Officials said that the evacuation was merely a precaution.
Travelers who were stuck while the luggage was being looked at weren't happy to hear that there didn't actually seem to be a problem. One traveler, Jim Mehas, said "It's a bunch of crap. They're not doing their job here."
Another person, Kay Wieczorek, was less critical, noting, "You wanna be safe, but I just hope they didn't overreact."
image: Wikimedia Commons
