Entire airport shut down after grenade found in rock star's luggage

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An entire airport was shut down after a rock star was found to be carrying a grenade in his suitcase.

Wayne Coyne, the frontman of the Flaming Lips, caused the bomb scare when a security scanner detected his gold-painted grenade and set off an alarm.

The Will Rogers Airport in Oklahoma City then went into lockdown as police and bomb disposal experts swooped in.

The singer reportedly told a policeman that he had been given the grenade at a party, and that it was a dud.

He took some responsibility for the mishap, but said the airport's rules made the situation a whole lot worse.

He told The Sun: "I would agree that it was stupid of me, but I don't feel wholly responsible if people missed their flights.

"I'm not making the rules. It's not illegal for me to have that grenade with me."

He added: "It was an actual grenade that was now missing its explosive parts and painted gold. I just threw this gold grenade in my bag and had not quite thought about it.

"Once the bomb guy comes out, there's two weeks of paperwork that has to be filled out.

"It's too late – the merry-go-round had to go its whole way around before you could get off."

Coyne, who had been on his way to Houston, Texas, to preview a new musical based on his band's music, wasn't a hit with some of the other passengers.

One of them said: "I was stuck near the food court, wasn't able to cross the airport to get to my gate.

"The flight left without me, all because of Wayne Coyne."

Oh well, at least it proves the security team were alert, which is not always the case; back in October, an airline security worker at Manchester Airport was suspended from duty after she failed to spot a fake bomb as it passed through the X-Ray machine.

The device was carried through security in an item of hand luggage by an official posing as a passenger.

The Daily Mailreports that the security worker did not detect the fake device as it passed through the 'air side' X-ray machine - meaning that it could have been taken on board a flight.

It is believed that she was distracted because she was looking at her work rota rather than watching the screen.

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