The moment a hero Transportation Safety Administration agent grabbed a smoking bag in Florida to protect airline passengers has been caught on video.
TSA agent Ricardo Perez, a 20-year Army veteran, had no way of knowing it was just a lithium battery that was exploding when he sprang into action in Orlando International Airport on Friday.
The incident occurred in the line for security screening, when a passenger noticed smoke coming from his carry-on bag and dropped it on the ground to seek assistance.
Soon smoke and noise emanating from the bag sent other passengers running for the doors in terror.
‘I heard people yelling… There were folks all over. Bag went and started smoking,’ Perez recalled to WKMG.
The incident occurred in the line for security screening, when a passenger noticed smoke coming from his carry-on bag and dropped it on the ground to seek assistance
‘I was so close to the bag. Let me get it out of the way,’ Perez recalls thinking.
‘I approached it. I radioed and then I picked up the bag and brought it over to that handicap sign over there in hopes that if it would go off, it would be able to have some of the shock absorbed by those two pillars,’ he said.
Emergency services responded quickly and determined that the source of the smoke was a lithium camera battery in the bag, which had spontaneously ignited.
Given the high level of tension around terror threats to airports, the incident did spark false reports of a shooting in the terminal, according to Greater Orlando Aviation Authority CEO Phil Brown.
‘Unfortunately, with all of the events occurring around the world some witnesses panicked and self-evacuated the area dropping their carry-on luggage and knocking over the stanchions queuing the checkpoint,’ Brown said in a statement.
As passengers fled, Perez grabbed the smoking bag. The Army veteran ran with the bag to put it behind a concrete pillar, hoping to block the blast if it detonated
‘Others hearing the luggage being dropped, stanchions falling, and rapid movement mistook the sounds as gunfire and within seconds a spontaneous evacuation of the main terminal occurred.’
Perez, who kept his head in the chaos, said that he was inspired to join the TSA after the attacks on September 11, 2001.
‘I figured that was the way to serve my country again,’ he said.
The incident unfortunately caused major disruptions for passengers.
Every passenger in the airport, including those already on board planes waiting to take off, had to exit while the building was swept.
They then had to all re-enter through security and be screened again.
‘Understandably, this event was very time consuming,’ Brown said.