Judy Sullivan, who just completed a trip to Australia and was seeing her granddaughters off at LaGuardia Airport on Tuesday, August 4, said that the false bomb threat over the weekend has her “worried.”
“After a while you get complacent, but with so many flights, it [a bombing] is still a possibility.”
Early Saturday morning, August 1, Scott McGann, 32, was arrested for carrying a dummy bomb into LaGuardia. He has since been ordered to submit to psychiatric evaluation before a court hearing, scheduled for Thursday, August 6.
“The defendant is clearly a very troubled young man,” said District Attorney Richard A. Brown.
According to the DA’s office, the evaluation will be used to determine whether McGann is fit to stand trail for the incident, which prompted an evacuation of the main terminal building, shut down the airport for several hours and led to major delays in air and road traffic. McGann is being held without bail.
McGann, who was holding a valid plane ticket to Chicago with connecting flights leading to California, was confronted by Port Authority officers after reports of a suspicious passenger. He allegedly remained silent as he was questioned then repeatedly hit a switch. The officers noticed wires coming from a bag in his possession and separated the two.
When officers inspected the contents of the bag, they found electronics and batteries but no explosives. The airport was evacuated for safety around 5:30 a.m. and travelers were not allowed back in until nearly four hours later.
If McGann is deemed fit to stand trial, he faces several charges, including placing a false bomb in a mass transportation facility and making a terrorist threat.
Overall, the incident seemed to elicit more nonchalance than fear, as fliers were generally not worried as they took off and landed a few days after the scare.
Carol and Malcolm Rubinstein said they were glad they didn’t have a flight on that day, but they weren’t fearful of flying in general.
“If we wanted to be really safe and away from danger, then we would stay home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina,” they said.
Steve Glaser was watching planes take off while waiting for his flight to Houston and said the incident “didn’t bother me one bit.”
Within the past 40 years, LaGuardia was the site of one bombing, one hijacking and three bomb threats.
On December 29, 1975, a blast detonated at around 6:30 p.m. from a public locker, killing 11 people and injuring 74. The bomber has yet to be found.
In September 1976, a plane leaving LaGuardia was hijacked by Zvonko Busic, a fighter for the freedom for Croatia. Although he said he had bombs on board, they turned out to be false. Busic tried to fool authorities into believing him by planting a real explosive in a Grand Central Station public locker. The bomb was extracted but went off later, killing one police officer and injuring another.
Threats of explosive devices shut down LaGuardia on January 4, 1999, August 19, 1995 and August 23, 1985. All of the incidents resulted in evacuations but no explosives.
