2 Delta flights land in JFK/hijacking threat

[Sol Rosenberg]

Has anybody else heard this? According to Fox News, 2 aircraft landed at JFK with some sort of security threat. Local law enforcement supposidly boarded the aircraft in full hijacking gear, etc. Both were Delta flights (#119 and #81). One of them might have been inbound from India. Thats all I heard before they went to commercial.

 

[Airboss]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,146433,00.html

Passenger Questioned in JFK Terror Scare
Friday, February 04, 2005

PHOTOS

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NEW YORK — Two Delta Air Lines (search) planes landed without incident Friday at Kennedy Airport after authorities received reports that the flights had been threatened.

A passenger aboard one of the flights was taken off the plane and was being questioned, said U.S. Customs and Border Protection (search) assistant commissioner Kristi M. Clemens.

Both aircraft were searched and the pilots interviewed, but no further problems were discovered, authorities said.

Dag Erik Kleven, 20, a passenger from Norway who was on Flight 119 from Paris, said that when his flight landed in New York, he saw two law enforcement officers board the plane. He said a man sitting in the first-class section was removed without incident.

Marcel Teunissen of the Hague, who was aboard the other flight, said that an announcement had been made before the flight took off in Amsterdam that there would be a slight delay because a woman had been removed from the plane due to security concerns.

A spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Steve Coleman, said that his agency received a number of erroneous reports about the flights.

 

[Airboss]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050204/ts_nm/security_flight_dc


NY-Bound Flights Get False Hijack Threats

Fri Feb 4, 3:33 PM ET Top Stories - Reuters



NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two Delta Air Lines Inc. flights were held briefly after landing in New York on Friday after authorities received false hijack threats, police said.


AFP/File Photo



"It was a big nothing, a non-incident," Port Authority police spokesman Tony Ciavolella told Reuters.


He said Port Authority police received several "erroneous reports" from "various federal agencies" about two flights -- Delta Flight 119 from Paris, which originated in Bombay, and Delta Flight 81 from Amsterdam.


The first report about Flight 119 stated that there were "seven people of interest" aboard the flight, a second tip from another agency said there was "one person of interest" on the flight, while still another report said that F-16 fighter jets were escorting Flight 119, he said.


Then Port Authority police were asked by federal authorities to check on a possible threat to Flight 81 because it was also a Delta plane arriving from Europe and was set to land at John F. Kennedy International Airport within minutes of Flight 199, the spokesman said.


"Both flights arrived on time without incident and the pilots of both planes reported no problems," Ciavolella said.


Upon landing, both planes were boarded by Port Authority police and FBI (news - web sites) officials and nothing untoward was found, he said.


Asked if the passengers were questioned after leaving both planes, Ciavolella said, "There was nothing to check out."


Delta said in a statement that passengers of both flights deplaned normally after a brief delay and that both aircraft have resumed their scheduled service.


One of the threats was called into an embassy, a Homeland Security official said earlier, and the caller claimed there were hijackers on board.


Local and federal officials have been on high alert for hijackings after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in which four commercial planes were hijackers.