Replies

Apr 28, 2:45 AM EDT

Two Fighter Planes Escort Air Canada Jet

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) -- Two Canadian CF-18 fighter planes escorted an Air Canada jet as it landed in Vancouver after a threat, but police said passengers were never in danger.

Officials were tightlipped about the type of threat that prompted the two fighter jets from Canadian Forces Base Comox to scramble and intercept the Boeing 767 on Tuesday as it flew to Vancouver from Toronto.

"The emergency landing took place as a result of an unspecified threat," Cpl. Peter Thiessen of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police told a news conference. "It was a safe, routine landing and the passengers deplaned as normal."

Neither police nor airline officials would say how many passengers were aboard.

"Our investigation has determined there was no real threat at any time to any passengers during this flight," Thiessen said.

Latest News
Two Fighter Planes Escort Air Canada Jet
Canadian Prime Minister Meets Dalai Lama

British Columbia Solicitor General Rich Coleman told radio station CKNW that Air Canada received a threatening e-mail, but Thiessen would not comment on that.

No passengers were detained by police or other officials, he said.

Flight 109 originated in Halifax and stopped in Toronto before arriving Tuesday afternoon in Vancouver.

Thiessen wouldn't say if there were any suspects in the threat.

Norad, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, informed the Vancouver Airport Authority that an Air Canada jet was being intercepted and escorted by fighter planes, an airport spokeswoman said.

"This is a routine air sovereignty operation," said Capt. Dave Muralt of Norad.

Wednesday, April 28, 2004 - Page updated at 12:00 A.M.

U.S. removing most troops posted on Korean border

By Hans Greimel
The Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea — The United States will pull nearly all its troops from their last front-line positions along the tense frontier with communist North Korea by October as part of a force reshuffle on the divided Korean peninsula, the United Nations Command said yesterday.
Duties along the heavily fortified buffer, called the Demilitarized Zone, will be handed over to South Korea, which has 600,000 troops staring off against North Korea's 1.1-million member military, the world's fifth largest.

U.S. Gen. Leon LaPorte, joint commander of the U.S. Forces Korea and the U.N. Command, told the U.S. Congress last month the changes were meant to give South Korea a greater role in defending itself. Yesterday's announcement was the first outlining details of the pullout.

North and South Korea are separated by the 2-1/2-mile wide, 151-mile long DMZ, a Cold War vestige strewn with mines and laced with barbed wire and tank traps.

U.S. troops guarding the inter-Korean border are often regarded as a "tripwire" because they are presumed to take casualties during a North Korean attack, thereby prompting U.S. intervention.

U.S. troops will be pulled out of their positions at Observation Post Ouellette, a dusty crag with a deep view into North Korea, and the bases of Camp Bonifas and Camp Liberty Bell, according to a statement released by the U.N. Command, which has overseen U.S. and South Korean forces since the 1950-53 Korean War.

U.S. troops in the truce village of Panmunjom, straddling the border, will be reduced to just a few.

There are about 600 South Korean and U.S. troops in the area now, the South Korean Defense Ministry said. South Koreans account for about 70 percent of the force, but that will grow to 93 percent after the Oct. 31 handover.

On Sunday, North Korea condemned a reduction of U.S. forces along the DMZ as preparation for a pre-emptive attack against the communist country. The North sometimes argues that a pullout signals an attack, because it would reduce the risk of immediate U.S. casualties along the border fighting zone.

The United States is reviewing its military posture in South Korea as part of a global realignment to make its forces more nimble and technology-driven.

The U.S. has not announced any changes in overall troop strength on the peninsula.