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Bomb threat halts flights at Newfoundland airport, police investigating ‘validity’
January 12, 2024 By The Canadian Press
A bomb threat Friday at the St. John’s International Airport prompted officials to evacuate the main terminal and halt all commercial flights.
Ryan Howell, a spokesperson for the airport authority, said the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary was at the airport investigating the legitimacy of the threat, and he described the scene as an “active situation.”
“We evacuated the airport terminal building and flight operations were halted in the sense that nothing can come into the terminal,” Howell said in an interview.
The airport posted about the threat on X, formerly Twitter, just before 8:30 a.m. local time. It asked the public to stay away from the airport’s main terminal, about nine kilometres north of St. John’s downtown.
“Flight operations have been paused while the investigation is occurring,” the post said.
The airport advised commercial passengers to check with their airlines regarding the status of their flights.
As of 10 a.m., there were no cancellations or delays listed on the airport’s website. Howell said that data is pulled from flight radar, and that flights “can technically land,” but they’ll be parked on runways or at the airport’s de-icing facilities as the investigation unfolds.
Helicopter and charter flights operated by Cougar and PAL Airlines, as well as medical evacuations, were not affected because they operated from a different part of the airport, Howell said.
