California airport closes over honey in luggage
Suspicious material found inside luggage prompted the shutdown of a California airport Tuesday morning.
By The Associated Press
FRESNO, Calif. — Suspicious material found inside luggage prompted the shutdown of a California airport Tuesday morning. It turned out to be five soft-drink bottles filled with honey, authorities said.
A passenger's suitcase tested positive for TNT at Bakersfield's Meadows Field during a routine swabbing of the bag's exterior, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said. When Transportation Security Administration officials opened the bag, they found bottles filled with an amber liquid, he said.
The bag's owner, Francisco Ramirez, 31, told TSA officers that the bottles were filled with honey, Youngblood said. "Why in this day and age would someone take a chance carrying honey in Gatorade bottles?" Youngblood said.
Investigators said Ramirez is a gardener from Milwaukee who has been cooperating with authorities. He flew to Bakersfield Dec. 23 to spend Christmas with his sister and was returning Tuesday when the alarm sounded.
Investigators will also run tests on the substance to see if the smoke beekeepers use to subdue the insects could have triggered a false positive test on honey.
All flights into and out of Meadows Field were canceled for much of Tuesday as authorities searched the terminal for other potential explosives.
