According to the news outlet, police said that the airport went into high alert when a woman exiting a plane said she had heard gunshots.
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The initial reports of shots fired came in at 9:34 p.m. and the departure area at Terminal 8 was cleared to “be cautious” and there was a robust response from the NYPD with more than 100 officers helping the PAPD search the two terminals.
That’s among the possibilities being probed by investigators trying to determine what led to a series of evacuations at the airport Sunday night.
Ryan Jorgenson, a senior aviation data analyst at the aviation research firm FlightAware, estimated about 15 flights were canceled, 115 flights were delayed, and 17 flights were diverted to another airport as a result of the security scare at JFK.
Passengers at Terminal 8 of JFK International Airport were evacuated from the building on Sunday evening, following reports gun shots had been fired in the area.
Authorities confirmed early Monday that no shots were fired, and all of the airport’s terminals were searched and cleared, according to a New York Police Department Special Operations tweet.
The video shows travelers with their hands up and some ducking for cover while others ran to the tarmac for safety.
Operations were shut down for three hours, but normal activity resumed around 12:30 a.m. once police determined those reports were unfounded. The terminal was evacuated out of an abudance [sic.] of caution. He also said that the televisions above him were tuned to CNN and not the Olympics.
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Videos and photos showed people cowering behind chairs and running across a road to escape the evacuated terminals, but investigators determined there were no guns or ammunition involved at the NY airport. “At this time no gun shells or other evidence of shots fired has been found”, the statement added.
