MINNEAPOLIS -- A terminal at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport was evacuated Wednesday evening after bomb-sniffing dogs detected suspicious smells in two vending machines.
About 200 passengers and employees were sent to a parking garage across the street from the terminal while a bomb squad investigated, said Pat Hogan, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Airports Commission.
The terminal reopened four hours later, although it was not immediately clear what the dogs had sensed.
"This could be something as simple as somebody lighting off fireworks during the Fourth of July and then having residue on them and touching a machine," Hogan said. "We hope it's as simple as something like that."
Also Wednesday, two concourses and two airplanes at Detroit Metropolitan Airport were evacuated after a contract worker whose security badge had been revoked ran off as he was being escorted through the facility.
The man was at the airport for a meeting with his supervisor, Detroit Metro spokeswoman Barbara Hogan said. She said he never was considered a threat, "only that he was a disgruntled employee."
Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Lara Uselding said since the man went into a secured area without clearance, "it was decided that the most secure option would be to ... re-screen those individuals that had already been through the checkpoints."
The airports have since been reopened.
