– Reports of shots fired at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport Sunday night led to evacuations, grounded flights and some frightening moments for fliers before the reports were later determined to be unfounded.
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Port Authority of NY and New Jersey police say they are trying to determine why travelers in New York’s busiest airport thought gunshots were ringing out through a terminal at 9:34 p.m. Sunday.
Officials at the Port Authority of NY and New Jersey, which operates the airport, have initially deemed the response as appropriate given the perceived threat of a gunman shooting at an airport teeming with travelers.
An official told NBC News that cheering, clapping and banging from people watching the Olympic Games on televisions around the terminal may have been misinterpreted as a fight and gunshots. “There are no arrests, there is no confirmation of shots fired”, the Port Authority said in a statement. These videos show passengers outside the terminal building.
Demetrius Pipkin told WPIX-TV he was in Terminal 1 waiting for his Norwegian Airlines flight when passengers were “told to get on the floor and take cover behind any and everything we could find”.
According to the flight tracking company, FlightAware, all inbound flights were held at their origin until 11:30 p.m. No shots were fired.
“Everyone just pushed their way in and that’s when Port Authority came in with all these guns -very scary”, one traveler said. He also said that the televisions above him were tuned to CNN and not the Olympics.
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In response to the unfounded reports, police evacuated Terminal 8 at roughly 9:30 PM and soon after it closed down Terminal 1.
