November 1st, 2011
01:53 PM ET

One person hurt after bag explosion at Chicago's O’Hare Airport

The FBI is investigating an incident Tuesday at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport after a checked bag exploded or combusted.

The suspicious item was a checked bag in the C Concourse, according to  Transportation Security Administration spokesman Greg Soule.

Soule said  Chicago police, fire and ordnance teams are on the scene. The FBI is interviewing the owner of the bag, Soule said. He added that a perimeter has been established to ensure the safety of people in the area. There were no evacuation orders in place, officials said.

United Airlines spokeswoman Mary Ryan said one employee had been taken to an area hospital.

“A United Airlines baggage handler received minor burns while handling 'pelican cases' which contained batteries,” according to Larry Langford with the Chicago Fire Department. “While the investigation is still under way, it is believed that a metal strip may have triggered the batteries inside the case. There is no criminal activity suspected and (it) is being treated as an accident. The Chicago Fire Department is checking other containers."

- CNN’s Kara Devlin contributed to this report.

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Filed under: Air travel • Travel
soundoff (146 Responses)
  1. OregonTom

    This happened to me when I had two AAs and some change in a pocket. Dumb da dumb dumb, OUCH!

    November 7, 2011 at 11:17 am | Report abuse |
  2. T Curl

    The hype is in the headline...the news is in the last sentence. Guess which approach CNN chose? No wonder people have to little regard for the media. And CNN is not the only news organization that routinely does this...apparently it's all about ratings and web traffic rather than being honest brokers of information.

    November 9, 2011 at 3:28 pm | Report abuse |
    • cole

      very well put. headlines can be so misleading

      November 16, 2011 at 3:35 pm | Report abuse |
    • Oneman

      This is CNN remember? It is an entertainment business built on advertising revenue generated by often questionable headlines. Most of their articles have not even been spell checked. If you are expecting honest and unbiased news reporting you should look at . . . Actually, I am not sure where to find honest and unbiased new reporting anymore.

      November 26, 2011 at 11:57 pm | Report abuse |
  3. Ben

    The propagating of fear is a great business for the media to help push ideas like war, depopulation, or what ever other agenda their handlers demand.

    November 14, 2011 at 2:37 pm | Report abuse |
  4. Bill

    Wow. That's an unbelievely fear-mongering and deceptive headline. But nobody would have clicked on "Batteries Explode" I guess.

    November 17, 2011 at 1:49 pm | Report abuse |
  5. Yeah

    CNN headline writers did this ON PURPOSE to get more page views and google ad money.. PATHETIC>. well.. I am NOT going to go to cnn.com for at least 10 days now.. f u cnn

    November 23, 2011 at 12:08 pm | Report abuse |
  6. DeathOnABicycle

    Glad CNN allowed me to waste a few minutes of my morning coffee time and a few more to type this in frustration. Going to Newsmax from now on. They seem to be the only ones telling the real story anyway! Ciao

    November 29, 2011 at 8:50 am | Report abuse |
  7. ZackInColo

    Disingenuous of CNN.
    I hope the idiots at TSA replace the damaged batteries.
    Morons should not mess with electridity.

    November 29, 2011 at 7:28 pm | Report abuse |
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