Airport evacuated over ... hand-held game?

Passenger worked for ‘some sort of game or toy company,’ TSA official says

MSNBC video

Suspicious package a handheld game
July 26: Long Beach airport authorities says the suspicious package found at the airport turned out to be a handheld game. MSNBC's Contessa Brewer reports.

MSNBC

updated 1:21 p.m. ET July 26, 2007

LONG BEACH, Calif. - A suspicious item in checked luggage that prompted the evacuation of a terminal at Long Beach Airport on Thursday turned out to be an electronic game, authorities said.

Several hundred people were evacuated from the terminal for about 90 minutes and five arriving aircraft were held on the tarmac until the all-clear was given.

Transportation Security Administration screeners spotted the suspicious item while X-raying a checked bag around 9:30 a.m., agency spokeswoman Jennifer Peppin said.

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The item turned out to be a handheld electronic game board in a “raw form” that showed its wiring, she said.

The passenger worked for “some sort of game or toy company,” she added.

Firefighters, police and a bomb squad were called to the airport, about 25 miles south of downtown Los Angeles.