Authorities Clear Lufthansa Flight Forced To Land At JFK Due To Bomb Threat
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Hundreds of passengers are hoping to leave John F. Kennedy Airport Tuesday after authorities said their Lufthansa flight from Texas to Germany was diverted due to a bomb threat.
Port Authority spokesman Steve Coleman said Lufthansa Flight 441 was heading from Houston to Frankfurt, Germany, Monday night when a threat was called in to the airline's corporate headquarters in Cologne, Germany.
Coleman said the pilot was notified and chose to divert to JFK as a precaution.
"When the pilot announced a bomb threat, to me, it felt a bit surreal," one passenger told CBS2 by phone. "Like, it took me a little bit of time for that to actually sink in."
The plane was taken to a remote area of the airport where 530 passengers and crew were evacuated. All of those on board were eventually bused to another location as law enforcement searched every piece of luggage and swept the aircraft.
Just before 1 a.m. Tuesday, the Port Authority tweeted that authorities cleared the plane and that a search of the aircraft was "negative." Coleman said nothing suspicious was found.
The flight has been rescheduled and the incident did not impact flight operations at JFK.
Over the weekend, there were multiple similar scares on planes across the country including a United Airlines flight from San Francisco to Newark where a threatening note was found in the plane's bathroom.
There was also a bomb threat directed at a chartered flight carrying the Boston Celtics.
Both flights landed safely.
(TM and © Copyright 2016 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2016 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
