Yesterday morning, Hilo International Airport experienced a brief halt in operations after two items resembling grenades were detected during x-ray screening within a carry-on bag belonging to male Japanese national departing the country.

Responding HPD officers secured and evacuated the terminal area as a precautionary safety measure while the department’s bomb squad arrived on scene and determined the items to be inert grenades.

Police arrested 41-year-old Akito Fukushima of Kanazawa, Japan, for first-degree terroristic threatening. Fukushima was transported to HPD’s East Hawaii Detention Facility and remains in custody while Detectives of the Area I Criminal Investigation Section continue the investigation. The airport resumed operations soon after.

HPD Photo