An Alaska Airlines employee yelled at passengers to evacuate over Labor Day weekend. The men at the center of the false alarm believe the event was racially charged.
- Newark Airport passengers stampeded away from a false threat of an active shooter on Monday. The two Chinese-born men at the center of the incident reportedly believe it was due to racial profiling.
- The incident unfolded around 8:30 p.m. on Monday, after an Alaska Airlines employee yelled at passengers to evacuate and set off an emergency alarm after she accused the two men of conspiracy.
- Han Han Xue and Chunyi Luo, who did not know each other previously, were confronted and questioned by the employee, before she yelled at passengers to evacuate and pulled an emergency alarm.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
A false alarm of an active shooter sent Newark Airport passengers stampeding away from a nonexistent threat over Labor Day weekend. The two Chinese-born men at the center of the incident reportedly believe it was due to racial profiling.
The incident unfolded at the Newark, New Jersey, airport around 8:30 p.m. local time on Monday, after an Alaska Airlines employee yelled at passengers to evacuate and set off an emergency alarm after she accused the two men of conspiracy.
Han Han Xue, a 29-year-old product designer, and Chunyi Luo, a 20-year-old student, did not know one another before the incident and were waiting to board their flight to San Francisco, BuzzFeed News reported. Xue said that he was "minding [his] own business" when a female Alaska airlines employee began questioning him and Luo, who was standing near him at the time, according to BuzzFeed News.
Xue told BuzzFeed News that she asked the two men why they were acting "suspiciously" and what their itineraries were. He added that she also asked how much are "they" were paying them - not specifying who "they" were - as well as asking if the two men were visiting the US on a visa.
Read more: Video: Chaos erupted at Newark Airport after a flight attendant shouted for people to evacuate
Xue is a Canadian citizen and works for Lyft in San Francisco, and Luo is a student at a university in San Francisco.
Xue then moved away from the woman as the questioning continued, and the employee followed and said, "I'm onto you guys. The cops are already called," he told BuzzFeed News. It was at that moment that the employee joined other gate agents and yelled at passengers to evacuate and pressed an emergency alarm, BuzzFeed News reported.
"The moment it happened is really hard to describe," Xue told BuzzFeed News. "Everybody started running. It was the most insane scene I've ever been in or ever seen."
Xue said he identified himself to police
Port Authority Police arrived to the airport, Xue said that he came forward and identified himself to officers, suspecting there was a "90% chance" that he might be the person that police were looking for, BuzzFeed News reported.
"Intellectually, I know I didn't do anything wrong and that I can explain my way out of the situation," Xue told BuzzFeed News. "But the only time I was really anxious was when the cops first showed up."
Police found Luo as well, calling him Xue's "friend," and took them both in for questioning. When asked why the employee found them suspicious, Xue said he didn't know "other than the face we are both East Asian," BuzzFeed news reported.
After a "series of questioning," police found that the two men "have done nothing wrong and were released," a police spokesperson said.
Sources say that the airline employee is bipolar and had an issue with medication
Sources told WLNY-TV that the woman may have bipolar disorder and had problems with her medication, prompting her to tell passengers to evacuate and preemptively pull the emergency alarm. WLNY-NV reported that prosecutors said she would not be charged if that were the case.
A representative from Alaska Airlines did not immediately respond to emails from Business Insider for comment.
Xue said he was not used to being thrust into the limelight but felt it was necessary to explain his side of the situation to refute original reports that they acted suspiciously and fled.
"I'm so angry about that," said Luo. "I'm just so scared ... it's horrible, it's awful."
When reached by email, Xue declined to provide a comment to Business Insider, saying that "I've told my side of the story, it's time for me to let this go and move on."