Air Marshals 'Had To Stop Threat'

Officials, Experts: They Were Right To Shoot Bomb Claim Passenger

(CBS/AP) 
The two marshals who were involved in the incident have been pulled from active duty and are being questioned as part of the investigation. CBS News correspondent Susan Roberts reports security appeared normal at Miami International Airport Thursday morning.

The White House Thursday said the marshals followed all "protocols" in their encounter with the man, reports CBS News correspondent Peter Maer. Spokesman Scott McClellan said the FBI and Homeland Security are doing a follow up investigation to check for "lessons learned."

After the shooting, police boarded the plane.

"When the SWAT team came in, that was absolutely terrifying because the guns were all pointed at all of us. It was very scary and went on quite a while," said Gardner.

Investigators spread passengers' bags on the tarmac and let dogs sniff them for explosives, and bomb squad members blew up at least two bags.

No bomb was found, said James E. Bauer, agent in charge of the Federal Air Marshals field office in Miami. He said there was no reason to believe there was any connection to terrorists.

The concourse where the shooting took place was shut down for a half-hour, but the rest of the airport continued operating, officials said.

Alpizar's brother-in-law, Steven Beuchner, said he was a native of Costa Rica, and met Beuchner's sister, Anne, when she was an exchange student there. Relatives said the couple had been married about two decades.

Neighbors described Alpizar as a pleasant man who worked in the paint department of a home-supply store and spent his spare time tending to the lawn of his ranch-style house. Many found it incomprehensible that he could have made a bomb threat.

"He was a nice guy, always smiling, always talkative," Louis Gunther said. "Everybody is talking about a guy I know nothing about."

Alex McLeod, 16, who lives three houses from the Alpizars, said: "This whole neighborhood is shocked. ... Totally uncharacteristic of the guy."

There were only 33 air marshals at the time of the Sept. 11 attacks. The Bush administration hired thousands more afterward, but the exact number is classified.

"Why we don't have them on every air flight is beyond me," Strang said. "If we can put money all across this country in low-risk areas, and not have an air marshal on an airplane, it makes absolutely no sense."

Marshals fly undercover, and which planes they're on is a closely guarded secret.

"As we move into the holiday season, as people are starting to travel, I think people can feel safe that airplanes won't be used as missiles, so things are 100 percent better than they were four years ago," Strang said.