PORTLAND – The Portland International Jetport was back to normal Wednesday after a late-night bomb threat that reportedly bore the name of the ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

The airport was evacuated Tuesday night and passengers arriving by plane were shuttled to a nearby hotel. The ensuing police search failed to turn up anything.

South Portland police received a hang-up 911 call at about 9:30 p.m. that led them to a pay phone at a strip mall where they found a note warning of a threat against the airport at 11 p.m., said Jeff Monroe, Portland’s transportation director.

Monroe said he was told secondhand that the note was signed by “Mohamed Atta,” but South Portland police Sgt. Ed Sawyer would not discuss the specifics of the note.

Atta passed through the Portland airport the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, before joining other terrorists in Boston and hijacking a plane that was flown into the World Trade Center in New York. The photograph of Atta passing through an airport checkpoint, taken by a security camera, is one of the enduring images from that day.

Late Tuesday night, Portland police, along with South Portland, Maine State Police and Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department bomb-detection dogs, began searching the terminal, the parking garage and eight planes that were parked at the airport, Monroe said.

During the search, a total of 375 passengers on eight inbound planes were taken by bus from the runway directly to the nearby Embassy Suites instead of the terminal, Monroe said. Baggage handlers took luggage from the plane directly to the hotel, where it was distributed to passengers.

The search ended at 1:45 a.m. Wednesday, about 15 minutes after the final flight landed.

Monroe said the search and evacuation went smoothly, but everybody waited anxiously while standing outside the airport at 11 p.m. – the time the note indicated a bomb would go off.

“I was wondering if I should put my fingers in my ears,” Monroe said.