A Navy bomb squad arrives at Tauranga Airport to deal with a suspicious package. Photo / Alan Gibson
A package mistakenly left at Tauranga Airport led to the terminal being closed for six hours yesterday, disrupting the travel plans of hundreds of passengers.
Seventeen flights were cancelled as a result of the scare, which ended about 6pm when a Navy bomb squad detonated the cardboard package
and determined it was not suspicious.
Police would not confirm the contents of the package, saying they first wanted to establish who was the owner.
Senior Sergeant Glenn Saunders said the package appeared to have been "inadvertently left" at the airport and he urged people to be more careful with their belongings in busy public places.
"It's about a bit of personal responsibility."
More than 400 passengers had their travel plans disrupted, including passengers from Tauranga connecting with international flights in Auckland.
Air New Zealand organised two shuttle buses to ferry the stranded group north, while other passengers travelling to Tauranga took flights to Hamilton or Rotorua instead.
The scare began at 12.45pm, when an airport worker spotted a cardboard package outside the men's toilets.
"It didn't seem like it should have been there," airport manager Ray Dumble said. "And in the current climate we've got to treat evidence seriously."
He said closing the airport had inconvenienced many travellers but management had a responsibility to ensure public safety, particularly in light of the bombing attempts in London and Glasgow.
After the package was discovered at Tauranga, airport staff immediately evacuated about 50 people from the terminal building to a carpark 150 metres away. The control tower was also evacuated.
Police cordoned off the road to the terminal as the Navy bomb squad travelled from Auckland, while Fire Service and ambulance staff remained on standby inside the cordon.
The squad arrived about 5pm and sent a robot into the terminal to remove the package, which was detonated outside.
