Early Tuesday morning, July 9, 2024, the Hilo International Airport experienced a brief halt in operations as Hawai‘i Police Department (HPD) personnel responded to a report by Transportation Security Administration (TSA) staff that two items resembling grenades were detected during x-ray screening within a carry-on bag belonging to male Japanese national departing the country.  

Responding to the 5:44 a.m. call, officers secured and evacuated the terminal area as a precautionary safety measure while the department’s bomb squad arrived on scene and determined the items to be inert grenades.   

At 6:45 a.m., police arrested 41-year-old Akito Fukushima of Kanazawa, Japan, for first-degree terroristic threatening. Fukushima was transported to HPD’s East Hawaii Detention Facility and remains in custody while Detectives of the Area I Criminal Investigation Section continue the investigation.

Police remind the public that replicas of explosives, such as hand grenades, are prohibited in checked and carry-on baggage. TSA officers also have the discretion to prohibit any item through the screening checkpoint if they believe it poses a security threat.