By ALEX PIAZZA
Traverse City -- Call it the terror threat that wasn't.
Traverse City's airport closed for about a half-hour Friday morning, police whisked a man off a United Express flight from Chicago, authorities herded passengers into a fire station for intensive questioning, and reports swirled of a bomb threat after a would-be suspect tarried in a commuter plane's restroom.
In the end, no one was hurt, and federal officials downplayed the drama that engulfed Cherry Capital Airport much of Friday.
Airport Director Stephen Cassens said a Christmas Day bombing attempt aboard a Detroit-bound flight caused "a heightened awareness of security issues." Officials closed Cherry Capital from 10:20 to 10:56 a.m. Friday for security reasons, Cassens said.
"It's a puzzle," he said. "Through the interviews ... hopefully, we'll be able to get a clearer picture."
The Associated Press quoted an anonymous source as saying a suspect made a bomb threat, but passengers said they weren't aware of any such threat. The Associated Press retracted the report later Friday.
Authorities and a bomb-sniffing dog failed to turn up evidence of explosives aboard the plane.
"A bomb dog from Grand Traverse County was called in to sweep the aircraft and luggage on the aircraft with nothing out of the ordinary found," said Capt. Steve Morgan, of the Traverse City Police Department.
A California man, 28, was detained throughout the afternoon after he spent about 15 minutes in the plane's bathroom, where a plastic flap apparently was dislodged sometime during the flight from Chicago.
Traverse City resident Bob Crosby was on the flight, traveling home from a stay in Chicago. He was seated next to a young man who stood and eventually walked to the plane's rear.
"I just happen to have a recollection of seeing him fooling around with his carry-on luggage," Crosby said.
Crosby saw the man handle "a tiny package" before he headed to the plane's restroom.
"I don't know if he took it back there with him," he said.
The passenger, who originally sat next to Crosby, spent roughly 15 minutes in the bathroom, he said.
A flight attendant later discovered a panel inside the bathroom had been "tampered with" after he exited.
Airline officials made an emergency call to police to report "suspicious activity by a passenger on an aircraft," police said.
Local police, Transportation Security Administration officials and FBI investigators were dispatched to Cherry Capital around 10:20 a.m. Friday.
"We exhausted all our officers," said Traverse City Police officer Paul Ellul, who guarded an airport security fence Friday.
Crosby was ready to exit the plane upon landing, but the pilot instead steered toward a secluded section of the runway.
"I thought maybe for some reason they were going to bring a bus," he said.
Instead, a city police officer entered the plane and told Crosby's seatmate to "put his hands up," Crosby said.
Morgan said the officer apprehended and led the man from the plane.
"He was fully cooperative," Morgan said.
Crosby said the man stood and asked the officer, "Is there some kind of problem?"
The remaining 10 passengers were told, "Everybody on your feet and off the airplane," he said.
Police placed the man inside a patrol car, while the remaining passengers were moved to an airport fire station for questioning. Crosby said he spent a couple hours inside the fire station.
"I became a person of interest because I was seated next to him," he said.
David Boyer was seated seven rows behind the man, and said he saw him walk into the bathroom.
But Boyer, 47, a Chicago resident who has a house in Acme, called the situation a "colossal misunderstanding."
"He did nothing more than flying while Arabic," he said. "It was a completely normal flight."
Police would not confirm whether the man was of Middle-Eastern descent.
Leelanau County resident Martin Hamilton was on his way back from Chicago on business. He said he didn't notice anything wrong until police swarmed the plane on the runway.
"When we were up in the air, I noticed him go into the bathroom, but I didn't think anything of it. I was just exchanging a newspaper with somebody behind me on the other side of the plane," he said. "Then, we got to the ground, and it just stopped on the runway ... all of the sudden, the cops came into the plane."
Hamilton heard that a fellow passenger apparently saw the man with a white package with blue markings, he said. Authorities searched Hamilton's and other passengers' bags for the package, he said.
Crosby, and his wife, Charlotte, left the airport around 2 p.m. -- nearly four hours after his flight was expected to arrive in Traverse City.
"I just thought, 'What the heck,'" said Charlotte, as she waited for her husband at the airport. "How strange is that, in quiet little Traverse City?"
But he said the experience won't deter him from future flights to see his daughter, Ann, in Illinois.
Staff Writer Art Bukowski contributed to this report.
