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One arrested following bomb scare at Jacksonville International Airport

One person has been arrested in connection with a bomb scare at Jacksonville International Airport.  After being shut down five hours Tuesday night the airport is back open for business.

Police have arrested 39-year-old Zeljko Causevic of Jacksonville and charged him with making a bomb threat and manufacture or delivery of a mail hoax bomb. JIA says one other person has been arrested for resisting arrest without violence but we're told that's not related to the bomb threat incident.

Michael Stewart with Jacksonville Aviation Authority says police were called about two suspicious packages Tuesday afternoon.

He says they always err on the side of safety, and credits everyone involved for doing a "really great job".

Stewart says one package was in the terminal and the other was in the garage. Bomb squads arrived on the scene where one package had to be rendered safe. Police are now in possesion of that device.  The second package is also in police hands but did not have to be rendered safe.

Jacksonville Sheriff's Office officials say one of the packages "had some destructive nature'' and had to be taken offsite.

Earlier, several listeners called into the WOKV newsroom to say they were forced to evacuate the airport.

One listener told WOKV News as he was walking into the airport terminal he was turned around by police. But he tells WOKV news a man standing next to him watched it all unfold. He says the man told him this, " I was right behind the guy that was in line and he pointed down to his bag and said yeah, 'I have a bomb in the bag.'"

According to a police report, Causevic told police "I came to the security guard and said 'I got a bomb in here.'" He described the device as a luggage scale with two flat batteries and a microchip inside. Police also recovered a remote detonator from Causevic. He apparently told police the device "was supposed to be a bomb, but isn't."

In addition to speaking with police, he was also interviewed by the Joint Terrorism Task Force.

Another traveler, Karen Owinga, told WOKV's Matt Augustine she was also standing in line behind a man police were talking to and watched as he calmly answered questions.

"He was answering questions and we heard the "B" word and when they heard that they just told us to run," says Owinga.

The airport as of 11:00 p.m. has reopend to the public. Passengers who arrived during the scare are in the process of getting their luggage. Stewart says there were only seven flights cancelled last night and that was due to the fact that they were aircraft that would normally land late and stay overnight to get new equipment but could not because of the evacuation and therefore weren't ready for their early takeoff.

A second man, Manuel Rivera, was arrested in the parking garage area and charged with resisting arrest without violence. A police report says Rivera was acting suspcious and took off running when police asked him to stop. He was tackled and restrained to be taken into police custody. This incident happened about a half hour before the bomb threat was realized and was not connected.

All passengers taking flights tomorrow are being asked to keep in touch with their airline about arrival and departure times.

When authorities decided to shut down the airport, some incoming planes were held up on the tarmac until buses arrived to pick up passengers. The passengers were shuttled to nearby hotels.

Click here to see the flight board for arrivals and departures from JIA.

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