INDIANAPOLIS -- As many as 700 passengers at two Indianapolis International Airport concourses were evacuated and re-screened Friday morning after an urn passed through security without being checked properly, according to a Transportation Security Administration official.

Passengers in concourses B and C were rounded up and put through the screening process again as crews searched both concourses, which were emptied for the search at about 6:20 a.m.

The urn, which officials believed contained cremated remains, was never found, and officials believe the man carrying the urn departed on a plane before the evacuation happened, 6News' Julie Pursley reported. The evacuation was ordered because the contents of the urn had not been verified.

TSA officials said the man who had the urn allowed it to go through an X-ray machine and did nothing wrong. The TSA said it couldn't comment on what specifically went wrong with the screening, but it added that urns aren't allowed past a checkpoint if, during an X-ray, it generates an opaque image that prevents the screener from seeing what is inside.

"The communication between the X-ray operator and a secondary inspection officer took place after the passenger had moved on down the concourse," said David Kane, of TSA. "We're going to do a top-to-bottom review. We're going to make sure the procedures that need to be in place are in place, that our supervision, that our management oversight is working as intended."

Four flights took off before the evacuation was ordered. Officials said they think the man with the urn was on one of those flights. Eight flights were delayed briefly after the incident.

"We've got some friends who got on a plane earlier that were going to Cancun. They called us and said, 'Hey, I hope you guys aren't in all that mess,'" said passenger Dick Wallsmith.

The evacuated passengers then went through security screening again and the concourses reopened around 7:35 a.m., airport spokeswoman Susan Sullivan said.

Friday's incident comes less than two weeks after about 500 passengers were evacuated from Concourse D because inactive training explosives had been accidentally left behind by a TSA employee.

Check Flight Status