St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport was closed for several hours Friday afternoon while law enforcement officials investigated a bomb threat, according to Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri.
About 4:30 p.m. Friday, Allegiant Air Flight 2006 was on the runway preparing to depart for Cincinnati when a flight attendant found an “explicit” bomb threat written on a lavatory door, Gualtieri said during a briefing Friday evening. The sheriff declined to elaborate on the threat but said it targeted all Allegiant planes at the airport.
About 170 passengers were on the plane, and no injuries were reported.
“It’s an active and ongoing investigation, and right now I’m comfortable in saying that there is no immediate threat to anybody that was on any of those planes or here at the airport,” Gualtieri said.
Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office bomb-sniffing dogs, with help from local agencies, cleared all planes.
No arrests have been made, but “we do have some people that their actions were suspicious, and we’re looking into it,” Gualtieri added. He said he expected to turn the airport back over to airport officials shortly.
Arrivals and departures have been delayed. To check the status of your flight, visit fly2pie.com.
