Honey named as hazardous material that closed California airport

Jan 6, 2010, 17:07 GMT

Los Angeles - The suspected hazardous material that caused the closure of an airport in Bakersfield, California was identified Wednesday as honey.

Federal security officials suspended all flights to and from the southern California airport Tuesday after screeners were overcome by fumes from suspected hazardous material found in luggage.

But tests revealed that the five containers that sparked the major security alert contained honey that a 31-year-old male passenger was taking home to Milwaukee, officials said.

'None of the items inside the bag contained explosive or hazardous material, and the liquid inside the five bottles was identified as honey,' the Kern County sheriff's department said in a statement.

The statement added that a routine swab of the man's bag had tested positive for a hazardous substance and that the alert was raised when two screeners who examined the bag both became nauseated.

Security has increased at airports across the US in the aftermath of the failed Christmas Day plot to blow up an airliner over Detroit. On December 25, a Nigerian man allegedly tried to detonate explosives on board a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.