ST. GEORGE — A bomb threat that police say was similar to one that delayed the opening of the Red Cliffs Mall on Sunday closed down St. George Regional Airport on Monday morning.
St. George Police Officer Tiffany Mitchell told St. George News they were alerted at 7:20 a.m. to a threat of a bomb at the airport that was sent via an email. The airport was closed and evacuated at 8 a.m. while a bomb-sniffing dog – the same one donated from Intermountain Health and used during a bomb scare Sunday morning at Red Cliffs Mall – scoured the airport.
Police said it wasn’t the only similarity to the Sunday threat at the mall that resulted in nothing suspicious found.
“It had the same mo (modus operandi) as the one from yesterday. Airport protocol is to evacuate so that was what was done,” Mitchell said, while noting the email didn’t come from the same email address. “Not the same email, but same verbiage.”
After an hour, the airport was reopened. Like the Red Cliffs Mall the day before, nothing suspicious was found, and the airport returned to normal operations shortly before 9 a.m.
St. George Regional Airport Manager Rich Stehmeier said most of the morning flights had already taken off or landed and only one flight ended up being delayed.
United Express flight 5080, scheduled to take off at 10:16 a.m. for Denver, Colorado, left the gate more than 30 minutes later at 10:52 a.m. and took off at 11:29 a.m.
Stehmeier said the evacuation went by the Transportation Safety Administration book, with everyone in the terminal evacuated to a nearby administration building while the bomb-sniffing dog did its work.
“It actually went just the way it should have gone as far as the airport goes as we ran our checklist. Get everyone out,” said Stehmeier, adding that he entertained travelers and employees in the meantime. “They all just came over here. It was warm and access to coffee and donuts … made sure they were happy. Just one of those things. Just erring on the side of caution. Sometimes it has to be a Monday, but we’re back to normal and moving ahead.”
Mitchell said while possibly connected to the mall evacuation Sunday, there was no sign the threatening email is connected to threats to synagogues statewide after the declaration of war between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas.
“It didn’t reference world events or really any specific groups,” Mitchell said of both the email Monday and the one Sunday.
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