BURLINGTON — A man said in court Monday he was not aware that his actions closed the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport for nearly three hours Sunday morning, delaying thousands of passengers.

        “I'm not aware of much of anything,” Charles Scott Cowsert, 40, of Council Grove, Kan., said in Boone County District Court.

        Arrested Sunday at the airport after allegedly creating a security breach by running into a secure area, he is charged with possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. Boone District Judge Michael Collins kept Mr. Cowsert's bond at $100,000 because other charges may be filed.

        Judge Collins entered a not guilty plea for Mr. Cowsert, who tried to tell the judge he did not run from authorities. He also said he didn't have a knife.

        “It was a pen with a cigar cutter; it was not a knife,” Mr. Cowsert said.

        That's when Judge Collins cut off Mr. Cowsert and said the fact the airport was closed was serious and the arraignment was not the place to present evidence.

        “That makes it a lot more than a drug case at this point,” Judge Collins said. “I'm not saying you're guilty or not guilty. ... When you close down airports, it involves many people and much confusion.”

        When he was arrested Sunday, Mr. Cowsert claimed to have passed a knife to an accomplice, forcing the shutdown of the airport, authorities said.

        Airport Police Chief Charles Melville said Mr. Cowsert was booked on a Comair flight from Dayton, Ohio, to Cincinnati and then Florida, but did not board the plane in Dayton.

        Mr. Cowsert was in line for security screening at the Comair terminal in Concourse C about 9 a.m. when security personnel noticed a bulge near his ankle, a Federal Aviation Administration official said Sunday.

        According to FAA/Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen, Mr. Cowsert removed his boots as required by federal security screening procedures but then ran in his stocking feet, chased by security personnel.

        Minutes later, Mr. Cowsert returned and was arrested, but he claimed to have handed off a pen knife to an accomplice.

        Mr. Cowsert later recanted his claim, but not before the airport's Concourses A, B and C were evacuated so bomb-sniffing dogs could search facilities and airplanes, said Ms. Bergen.

        The airport reopened at 12:10 p.m. Sunday.

        “We had to act as if he had a weapon,” Chief Melville said Sunday.

        Chief Melville said airport police later determined there was no pen knife or other weapon, or any accomplice, but that Mr. Cowsert did have a small amount of marijuana in his possession.

        Police said Mr. Cowsert appeared under the influence of intoxicants during their post-arrest interview and he refused to respond to many of their questions.

        Residents in Council Grove, a town of about 2,300 located about 40 miles south of Manhattan, Kan., first heard of Mr. Cowsert's trouble from radio reports Monday. City Administrator Cathy Snelling said the reaction was “curiosity.”

        Council Grove Police Chief Tom Furman said Mr. Cowsert has only lived in Kansas about two months. He said Mr. Cowsert moved from Texas into a house Mr. Cowsert's grandmother had owned when she died recently.

        Ms. Bergen said the Transportation Security Administration has no plans to continue its own investigation since no weapon was involved.

        Thousands of passengers were rescreened after the 10 a.m. shutdown, and those on the 10 flights that left the airport during the evacuation were screened upon arrival at their destinations, Ms. Bergen said.

        Nicole Sundgren, a Delta spokeswoman, said flights from Delta's two concourses were delayed up to 45 minutes to allow passengers to be rescreened. Comair did not return phone messages seeking comment.

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