Airdrop scare leads to recreation area evacuation
By Nick Martin, Tribune
Sheriff’s officials scrambled to evacuate part of the Tonto National Forest and put the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on alert Sunday after an airplane dropped bags of white powder near the Verde River."In the case that this was a chemical or biological attack, everyone out there would have been exposed," Maricopa County sheriff’s Sgt. Travis Anglin said.
The river also supplies water to the Valley.
But it wasn’t an attack. A man with access to an airplane had dropped flour bombs on his friends as a prank while they played paintball at Needle Rock recreation area east of Cave Creek, Anglin said.
Forest rangers saw the drop about noon. Sheriff’s officials evacuated the area and started checking the powder. About three hours later, the paintball players explained about their friend, who had flown out of Deer Valley Airport, Anglin said.
The man, whose identity was not released, could face charges, such as flying too low and dropping objects out of a plane, Anglin said.
The three-hour scare did test authorities. "It was kind of a dress rehearsal for terrorist activities," Anglin said.
One issue was an apparent miscommunication between the sheriff’s office and Salt River Project, which manages the Valley’s incoming water supply. SRP spokesman Scott Harelson said the company was not notified by sheriff’s, forest or federal officials until about two hours into the scare and only found out about the incident when the Tribune called for comment.
But Anglin said the sheriff’s office notified SRP while the scare was happening. He did not know, however, who contacted whom and said SRP may have called the sheriff’s office.
