Flaming Lips Frontman Shuts Down Oklahoma City Airport With Inactive Grenade In His Luggage

All it takes is one eccentric band frontman with an inactive grenade to shut down an entire airport and you’ve got a headline. In this case it’s Flaming Lips wackadoodle (and I mean that in the most affectionate way) frontman Wayne Coyne, who caused a bit of a kerfuffle last week when Transportation Security Agents found a bit of tossable weaponry in his luggage.

The incident was just confirmed by Fuse, with writer William Goodman checking out the official police report to see how it all went down. Seems Coyne and his wife were going through security at Will Rogers Airport on their way to L.A., when TSA agents stumbled upon the grenade.

The police report says Coyne’s luggage triggered an alarm at 12:52 PM November 10. The reporting officer spoke with Coyne, who said the grenade “was given to him at a party in Arkansas on November 4, 2012. He advised it was a grenade but said it was dead and was painted.”

That’s when the TSA instituted a lockdown on the airport and brought in a bomb specialist, who was able to figure out that the grenade wasn’t a danger to anyone and even had a hole in the bottom. Coyne didn’t get to keep the gold grenade, as the TSA “took control of it.”

Coyne apologized to inconvenienced travelers, some who had to change travel plans because of the airport shutdown, tweeting:

“Sorry Sorry Sorry!! Everyone that was inconvenienced because of my grenade at OKC airport!!”

Cut to the TSA agent using the gold grenade as a conversation piece: “Oh, that thing? Yeah, got it from Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips. No big deal.”

Police Confirm Wayne Coyne Shut Down OKC Airport With Grenade [Fuse]

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.