Five suspicious packages arrived at the North American Aeorspace Defense Command, NORAD, forcing them to evacuate 1,500 employees from their Colorado-based headquarters, reported The Christian Science Monitor.
Employees remained outside the premises for approximately 4 1/2 hours on Thursday while staff at NORAD command's control room continued working in a remote, backup location nearly eight miles from the incident.
NORAD is a joint American-Canadian command that defends the skies across both countries, according to FOX News. Their backup control room, in Cheyenne Mountain, was originally being used as the headquarters on the Peterson Air Force Base was undergoing renovations, said Navy Captain and NORAD spokesman Jeff Davis.
Officials said there were reportedly no disruptions in their missions, according to The Monitor.
According to some employees, when the packages arrived they looked awfully "out of place," said Jeff Bohn, a spokesman for the Colorado Springs-based air force in an interview with The Monitor.
Bohn didn't comment on further description of the package and how unusual it looked. But he did say investigators already performed tests on and ruled out chemical, biological and radiological elements, reported Begla News Navigator. They are currently reviewing the packages for alternative tests.
While the spokespeople at NORAD have no clue as to how the five packages arrived or if they were screened, reported The Monitor, the officials are expecting to get to the bottom of it.
The site of the base sits in the Cheyenne Mountain region and shares runways with City of Colorado Springs Municipal Airport. In the 1960s, the mountain were used to hold out Soviet Union nuclear attacks. Since 2006, the command started to relocate the control room at the Peterson Air Force Base.
NORAD also accommodates the United States Northern Command, which provides defense support for civilian authorities from terrorists.
