SASKATOON – Saskatoon police say a suspicious object found in the parking lot at John G. Diefenbaker Airport on Tuesday morning was not a pipe bomb.
Police received a call around 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday about a suspicious device in the airport parking lot.
An object that had characteristics like a pipe bomb was found.
The area was cordoned off and explosive disposal technicians were brought in and carefully retrieved the object.
Due to proximity, no vehicles were allowed to leave the parking lot during this incident.
The airport authority created a temporary parking area with 250 spaces and there were no reported flight delays.
To disarm the device, officers dug a hole in a field located right across from the parking lot and placed the object in it via a robot.
According to Kelsie Fraser with the Saskatoon Police Service, explosive technicians used a process called “venting” to diffuse the situation.
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“This happened twice. There were three warning horns. It’s a global system for when something is going to detonate. After that, it was followed by a popping. That is a mechanism that the explosives disposal technicians use to disarm the device, which at this time, it had all the characteristics that looked like a steel pipe bomb,” said Fraser.
The object was deemed disarmed and technicians then examined it.
The situation resolved around 3:30 p.m.
Airport surveillance cameras will be analyzed as the investigation continues.
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