Jacksonville International Airport Re-Opens After Evacuation Over Suspicious Packages: Officials

One of the packages found at the Florida airport had a "destructive" component and was removed from the area, authorities said

Jacksonville International Airport re-opened late Tuesday night after a bomb squad removed a "destructive" device, authorities said.

The airport was evacuated for several hours because two suspicious packages were found, authorities said.

Jacksonville Sheriff's Office spokesman Shannon Hartley said at a news conference that one of two suspicious packages found at the airport had a "destructive" component that required it to be taken off-site. He said the device was later "rendered safe."

Hartley wouldn't say which of the packages was destructive. Police found one package in the terminal and another in a parking garage, the Florida Times-Union reported.

The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office bomb squad was investigating and screening the packages, and the FBI was also on the scene, airport spokesman Michael Stewart told reporters earlier Tuesday night.

β€œIt is evacuated until it is a safe environment for workers and passengers to be in," Stewart said of the airport.

The evacuation left planeloads of passengers stuck on the tarmac.

Officials said on the airport's Twitter feed that passengers on inbound flights on the ground were being bused to off-site hotels as transportation became available.

There were no reports of injuries or damage.

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