The second bomb threat against the Cyril E. King Airport on St. Thomas in less than a week shut down air traffic to the island Thursday afternoon.
Officers of the V.I. Police Department’s bomb squad, assisted by Port Authority law enforcement officers, searched the terminal for an explosive that was allegedly placed there. The airport was closed for 30 minutes while the search was in progress.
The threatening call came in to U.S. Customs at 3 p.m. from a man with a West Indian accent who said a bomb at the airport would go off in 15 minutes. The man said, "This is not a joke like the call of last week."
The airport was closed and evacuated immediately.
Thursday’s bomb threat could not have come at a worse time, the peak of the afternoon jet traffic in and out of the airport.
At the time the bomb scare was telephoned in to the airport, three American Airlines 757 jet aircraft were on the ground. Ramp personnel scurried to “push back“ the jets from the terminal. And while the airport was closed, a Delta airlines flight from Atlanta circled around St. Thomas until it could land. A U.S. Air flight was diverted to St. Croix. The airport reopened at 3:40 p.m.
On Saturday a similar bomb threat was called into the airport, forcing the airport to close for almost an hour.
No bombs were found in either incident.
