Scary Toothbrush Prompts Shutdown of World's Busiest Airport

McGruber writes "The big buzz for travelers today is the story of how a scary toothbrush prompted the closure of Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport: 'Airport officials told Channel 2 Action News that an electric toothbrush began vibrating inside a bag checked onto an AirTran flight, causing workers to alert airport officials to the strange noise.' The terminal and the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) subway were both temporary closed 'out of an abundance of caution.' ATL has been the world's busiest airport by passenger traffic since 1998, and by number of landings and take-offs since 2005."

Re:Happened to my wife

[sortius_nod]

Not sure if you're aware of how much parking fees are for commercial airliners, but they aren't cheap & are calculated to the minute. Add to this the reallocation of tickets for connecting flights, time on the clock for business people, etc.

A small delay can amount to millions in a busy airport.

Misleading headline, airport wasn't shut down

[DanTheManMS]

If you read the full article (I know, I know, it's Slashdot) you'll find that only a portion of one of the two baggage claim areas was shut down from foot traffic, as well as the MARTA entrance near it, for about half an hour. Not even a full terminal was shut down, and certainly not the entire airport.

Talk about exaggerating the truth, jeez.

Re:Misleading headline, airport wasn't shut down

[Nidi62]

Well, in defense of the summary, is does say the terminal, and by inference it is referencing the Air Tran terminal. Hartsfield-Jackson has 3 terminals: South (Delta and affiliates), North (everything else), and now the International terminal. The terminals are where you have check-in and baggage claim. It has 6 concourses, which is where the flights are. Air Tran uses the southern half of C and D concourses (C is split with Southwest, who of course now owns Air Tran). So, if you know the airport layout and terminology, you could figure out what ares were or would be closed and what wouldn't, technically making the summary correct. The headline, however, should say "part of world's busiest airport".

Re:Dear old people:

[meerling]

They never did.
I've seen lots of the bombs (non explosive duplicates for training purposes) used by real terrorists in a little museum EOD had.
Every one of them was a real item that had been used against Americans.
Every one of them was indistinguishable from the item it was intended to duplicate, and often had full functionality.
My favorite is still the telephone the detonated when you hung up.

If you don't know, EOD is Explosives Ordinance Disposal. They are the people that deal with various bombs and booby-traps that aren't supposed to be there.

Re:The first rule...

[Zemran]

I had my electric razor start in my bag in Guangzhou and they made me go back through check in and open my luggage and turn it off. Their was no tension, they were still smiling at my embarrassment all the way. The took me back air side afterwards but there was never any implication that it was a threat. They just wanted me to be there when the bag was opened and it was checked out. Why is that China is the one that is always pictured as the police state when I am always treated far better there?

I travelled a lot with my son and he caused enough scares to turn me grey. We were immediately surrounded by armed police in Thailand when they saw a gun in his carry on as it went through x-ray... It was a very realistic BB gun that he had bought in the market in Bangkok without telling me... and in China he tried to get 2 small swords on a plane and they would not let him...Thankfully he has now left home and gone to university.