Thanks. I won't lie - it was pretty effing scary and I pretty much died a million deaths until I knew he was safe at the hotel. I can't even imagine what it would've been like if I'd been there. Even though the police never found anyone, it sounded like just sheer horror and panic.
He said he was walking off the plane and this giant throng of people were running towards his gate screaming, crying with people yelling "Shooter behind us!" - so he turned around and ran back down the jetway onto the plane. He said the flight attendants and pilots were heroes. They immediately got people on the plane, shut and locked the front door and fired up the engine and pulled away from the jet bridge. They let them off the plane about an hour later, they all had to go through security (think reverse TSA) and then of course, he couldn't get out of the airport to get to the rental car shuttle, so he just walked the 1.5 miles to the rental car place - wheeling his bag with him. He was so happy he decided to carry-on and send all of his checked baggage stuff with me.