Airport gets bomb threat

Airport gets bomb threat

April 17, 2001

By Aspen Emmett
Journal Staff Writer

The Cortez Municipal Airport had a brief bomb scare Tuesday evening of last week, said Montezuma County Sheriff’s Detective Lt. Kalvin Boggs.

At around 4:30 p.m., a United Express employee received a bomb threat against the airport and eight MCSO deputies were called in to search both the building and a plane.

"We cleared the building, did a thorough search and turned up nothing," Boggs said. "It turned out it was a false alarm."

The unknown caller reportedly did not make any demands, nor did the caller allude to a reason for the threat.

"They just called up, made the threat and hung up," Boggs said. "It was a really short conversation."

Boggs said the call was not able to be traced and the sheriff’s office has no leads as to who the caller might have been.

Initially, the airport was evacuated, but in a short time, business was back on schedule.

"I think the plane was only delayed 30 minutes at the most," Boggs said.

If a bomb were to be found, MCSO seeks help from area experts.

"We contract with an ex-EOD (explosive ordinance disposal) guy out of Durango," Boggs said.

"We would call him in, and if it’s bad enough, we’ve networked with counties on the Front Range."