Playstation at Boston airport prompts bomb squad response, evacuations

By Mitchell Willetts
The Charlotte Observer

BOSTON — A suspicious device led to chaos at Logan Airport in Boston on Easter Sunday — but the security threat turned out to be a PlayStation video game console, officials and media outlets reported.

A terminal was evacuated and a bomb squad called in, outlets reported.

“I was waiting on something and I just see, like just out of the movies, people like sprinting, screaming out the door,” Shaun Hartwell, a passenger, told TV station WFXT.

“There was an employee door, I’ve never seen a more scared person in my entire life, won’t let me inside in case I’m the threat,” said another passenger, Nico Pisello.

While witnesses describe a scene of panic in the terminal, many passengers appear to have remained calm, exiting in an orderly fashion, video posted to Twitter shows.

The bomb squad, part of the Massachusetts State Police, investigated the questionable luggage, swept the area, and gave the green light to resume as normal around 5 p.m., an MSP spokesperson told McClatchy News in a statement.

“Troopers responded and, after investigation and research, determined that the item was a PlayStation video game console with a degraded condition caused by age or damage,” the statement said.

Due to the gaming console’s age, there were “abnormalities” when it was X-rayed, which concerned TSA agents, police said.

In addition to panic and confusion, the scare led to long lines and delays, WBTS reported.

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