Man charged after KC airport fake bomb scare

KANSAS CITY, Mo.?? A man with a history of mental illness accused of trying to take a fake bomb through security at Kansas City International Airport on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks was charged Monday in federal court.

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Anthony Falco Jr., 47, was charged with trying to take a simulated bomb through an airport checkpoint and leading officials to believe he had a bomb in a complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Kansas City. The former New York City police officer faces up to five years in prison on each charge, if convicted.

Falco did not yet have a lawyer. The U.S. attorney's office in Kansas City said his last known address is East Petersburg, Pa.

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Falco's mother told members of the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force that her son previously received psychiatric treatment in New York and that he had recently stopped taking his medication.

One of the airport's three terminals was shut down for several hours on a busy Sunday after security screeners discovered something suspicious in one of Falco's the carry-on bags.

Security officers stopped Falco about 9:30 a.m. at a Southwest Airlines checkpoint and asked if they could examine his bag. Falco was taken into custody after becoming belligerent and a Kansas City bomb squad later determined the bag didn't contain explosives.

A Kansas City bomb squad used a high-pressure water blast to disrupt the device outside the terminal and determine it did not contain explosives.

U.S. Magistrate Judge John Maughmer ordered Falco to remain in the custody of the U.S. marshal until a preliminary hearing scheduled for Thursday morning.

The Transportation Security Administration said it shut down much of Terminal B, one of the airport's three separate terminals, for several hours Sunday "out of an abundance of caution." The terminal's parking lot also was closed, forcing passengers to park at a different terminal hundreds of yards away.

The TSA move resulted in long, slow-moving lines at the Southwest checkpoint that remained open near the end of the terminal, and at the airline's ticket counter. At least two flights were canceled because of the security situation and several others were delayed.

Airport police walked with a bomb-sniffing dog along the long lines of people who were waiting to check their luggage with a skycap outside the terminal. Inside, incoming passengers poured into a concourse already brimming with people waiting for delayed flights, causing even more congestion.

Falco was detained as ceremonies were going on nationwide in remembrance of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Four planes hijacked by 19 men crashed into the World Trade Center, Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania, killing nearly 3,000 people.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44492841/ns/travel-news/

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