Customs Evacuated at Fort Lauderdale Airport Over Box From Haiti

Passengers were left inside three arriving planes for about one hour

Passengers were held inside their planes on three arriving flights and the customs area of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport was evacuated Wednesday night as hazmat teams checked out a box that arrived from Haiti, an airport spokesman said.

Customs was evacuated over concerns that the box’s contents were hazardous, Broward County Aviation Department spokesman Gregory Meyer said.

The passenger who claimed the box told officials it contained fertilizer, and officials are testing its contents to confirm what they are, Meyer said.

Passengers were left on planes on Spirit, JetBlue and Caribbean airlines for about one hour. The whole incident took about two hours, and passengers began to be processed through customs again at about 9:40 p.m., according to Meyer.

For more on this story, see NBC Miami at 11 p.m.

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