UPDATE:
Two JFK-Bound Flights Land After Apparent Threats
POSTED: 1:35 pm EST February 4, 2005
UPDATED: 4:28 pm EST February 4, 2005
NEW YORK -- Two Delta Air Lines planes landed without incident at Kennedy Airport Friday afternoon after authorities received several reports that they had been threatened. Witnesses reported that a passenger from each flight had been removed.
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 in his 20s sitting in the first-class section was removed from the plane without incident.
"Everything was calm," Kleven told The Associated Press.
Marcel Teunissen of the Hague, who was aboard Delta Flight 81 from Amsterdam, said that an announcement had been made before the flight took off that there would be a slight delay because a woman had been taken off the plane due to security concerns.
A spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Steve Coleman, said that at about 12:45 p.m., his agency, which operates Kennedy Airport, received a number of reports, which he said were subsequently found to be erroneous, from "various federal agencies."
He said the reports alleged first that there were seven "people of interest" on Flight 119, which had originated from Bombay, India, and then only one.
A third report, Coleman said, had the plane being escorted to Kennedy Airport by F16 fighters. "The Port Authority took the necessary precautions and mobilized," Coleman said. Port Authority and federal law enforcement agents questioned both pilots and determined "there was absolutely no problem on board either flight," he said.
Earlier, MSNBC reported that Flight 119 had received a threat that came into NORAD, or the North American Aerospace Defense Command, in Colorado Springs, Colo., that on Flight 81, from Amsterdam, there was a "discovery of a person of interest," it said.
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>>>Earlier, MSNBC reported that Flight 119 had received a threat that came into NORAD, or the North American Aerospace Defense Command, in Colorado Springs, Colo., that on Flight 81, from Amsterdam, there was a "discovery of a person of interest," it said.
A THREAT from NORAD? Or a report from NORAD?
Odd wording.