Airport terminal evacuated following security incident

HEBRON, Kentucky -- The main terminal at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport was evacuated for three hours on Sunday after a security incident involving a passenger waiting to board an airliner.

Airport police chief Chuck Melville said the man passed the main checkpoint, but during a random search at the gate, Comair employees found marijuana.

"He alleged he had a penknife, but no penknife was found," Melville said.

The statement alone prompted the evacuation, Melville said. "He said he had one, so we have to take it as if he had one," he said.

The man did not attempt to flee, he said.

Earlier Sunday, U.S. Department of Transportation spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen had said a screener found a cigar-cutting knife in the man's boot and that the man then ran into a secure area.

She said later that the information she had released was wrong and that the federal Transportation Security Administration would drop its investigation because no weapon was found.

"It's over as far as we're concerned," she said. "It's a police matter."

Melville said he had not spoken with federal authorities. He said the man was being held on a marijuana possession charge.

The terminal was searched with bomb-sniffing dogs during the shutdown and thousands of passengers were re-screened after the terminal reopened, said airport spokesman Ted Bushelman.

Passengers on 10 flights that took off during the evacuation were screened at their destinations, Bergen said.