Police Swarm JFK After Alleged Bomb Threat Directed At Landing Delta Flight
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- An alleged bomb threat prompted a massive police response at John F. Kennedy International Airport Monday night.
Around 8:15 p.m., emergency alarms went off at the airport for a security alert, due to what officials told CBS2 was a telephone bomb threat called in to a Delta flight that was landing at JFK, Joe Biermann reported from Chopper 2.
Delta reported that another airline received the threat regarding Delta 468, which had been set to land at Terminal 2 at the airport. The flight number belongs to two a flight made up of two legs on different planes – one from San Francisco to JFK, which was the landing flight that prompted the emergency response, and another from JFK to Tel Aviv that was in the boarding process late Monday.
Police Swarm JFK After Alleged Bomb Threat Directed At Landing Delta Flight
The flight to Tel Aviv was quickly cleared, but left 50 minutes after its scheduled despite a 9:23 p.m. departure time as it was screened as a precaution, officials said. The flight was ultimately cleared to go.
The plane that landed from San Francisco -- a Boeing 757 with 171 passengers on board -- was moved to a remote area of the airport, and all the passengers were deplaned. As CBS2's Matt Kozar reported, K-9 units and police officers rushed the plane,
All the luggage was removed from the plane and was re-screened.
As for the ordeal, passengers arriving from San Francisco said they tried to remain as calm as they could.
"I was quite nervous, but I think everyone did a really good job at communicating, and you know, getting us our belongings and whatnot," said Delta passenger Melissa Fong.
Two girls said police did not tell the passengers what they were doing on board the plane, saying the officers had dogs and just searched everything.
"They were going up and down every aisle, like searching everyone's bags," one girl said.
The all clear was ultimately given for the landing flight by the FBI, the Transportation Security Administration and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
The FBI was leading the investigation into the threat, the TSA said.
