Woman arrested at Boston airport after bomb scare

BOSTON (Reuters) - A 19-year-old U.S. college student was arrested on Friday after she walked into Boston's Logan International Airport wearing what authorities initially thought was an explosive device, police said.

Star Simpson, a sophomore at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told police that the device -- a circuit board measuring roughly 2 inches by 6 inches (5 cm by 15 cm), with protruding wires, lights and a nine-volt battery -- was an art project.

"It was an innocuous device," Maj. Scott Pare of the Massachusetts State Police said at a press conference.

Authorities said she would be charged with possession of a hoax device and disorderly conduct. The hoax device charge carries a penalty of up to five years in prison.

Pare said police officers confronted her with automatic weapons.

"Thankfully she complied and so she ended up in a cell and not in a morgue," Pare said. "Had she not complied, deadly force might have been used."