Bay City Tribune

Two unrelated incidents caused a scare at South Texas Project Thursday afternoon that had plant security and Matagorda County Sheriff’s officers working quickly to diffuse the situations.

Coincidentally, within a time span of ten minutes, an unidentified aircraft was detected flying in the vicinity of the plant and a man was seen walking in the nuclear support center area carrying a rifle case.

According to Buddy Eller, STP Director of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs, the first incident occurred around 1:30 p.m. when a small aircraft was detected flying in the vicinity of the plant.

The plane was not submitting a proper transponder code, which caused plant security officers to dispatch an F-16 fighter jet from Ellington Field to escort the plane back to Ellington Field, said Eller.

Eller said federal investigators are handling the case and it is still unknown as to what the plane was doing in the area of STP.

Around 1:40 p.m. two separate employees spotted a man walking in the employee parking lot carrying a rifle case, Eller said.

Plant security identified the man, searched the rifle case and the man’s vehicle and never found a weapon.

Eller said the man was a plant employee and it is unknown why he had the empty gun case — possibly because hunting season is nearing.

“The good news is we have a very security conscious environment here at STP and not one, but two, employees spotted the man and contacted security,” Eller said.

“From our perspective it was a good thing that we have employees that are extremely security oriented and looking out for the good of everyone at the plant.”