Nashville airport concourse evacuated after “airborne disturbance.” No injuries reported
Nashville TN April 16 2023 The Nashville Fire Department has confirmed that an evacuation occurred late Sunday afternoon at Nashville International Airport’s Concourse C due to an “airborne disturbance causing breathing problems.”
Jospeh Pleasant, public information officer for the NFD, confirmed that there are no patients in need of medical treatment. No cause was announced.
“The airport is evacuating people in the area to fresh air as we determine the cause,” Pleasant added.
John Sloop, a communications studies professor at Vanderbilt University who was flying back to Nashville from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, came into the airport around gate C20 and walked straight into the incident.
“I was walking towards the front, and all of the sudden I just start seeing all these people with their shirts pulled up over their faces — they’re coughing, and they’re all looking backwards,” he said. “I thought it was going to be something goofy, like someone had thrown up or something. And then as soon as I started walking, all the sudden my throat started getting really scratchy, and I started coughing so I started walking back with everyone else.”
Sloop, who is asthmatic, was still coughing as he recounted the confusing events.
“Whatever it was, it was starting to filter backwards into concourse C. I think it was coming from gates C5 or C7,” he said. “I was trying to decide what to do — and I was trying to find napkins — then they decided to evacuate everyone from concourse C and go to one of the other terminals.”
Sloop said he never experienced the sensation before, calling it “very strange.”
“It was just a really strong irritation in the throat. The airport handled it really well though — there wasn’t any panicking. It was a strange experience though,” he said. “All the thoughts go through your head — like could this be something worse?”
