American Airlines Plane Grounded in San Francisco – Threat Not Credible
August 19, 2010 by Yppo · Leave a Comment
American Airlines Plane Grounded in San Francisco – Threat Not Credible – An airliner, American Airlines had to be grounded and evacuated Thursday in the San Francisco airport because of an anonymous telephone threat, while two passengers were questioned separately, it was learned from authorities.
The U.S. Administration of Transportation Safety (TSA) had said in mid-day, that it had been “informed of an alleged telephone threat against the American Airlines flight 24 before it took off.”
According to the TV station KTVU, the sheriff’s office of Alameda County had received an anonymous telephone call, warning of the possible presence of a hostage-taker in the plane, which was to depart at 7:30 pm (1430 GMT) from San Francisco to New York-JFK.
“All passengers are safe and by security measures, TSA has requested that the aircraft be moved to an area away (traffic),” confirmed to AFP Joseph Schadler, FBI spokesman in San Francisco.
The evacuation was completed around 2:30 p.m. (21:30 GMT). “There’s nobody on the plane now.”
“All the passengers were questioned and tested,” he added. “Two people have been interrogated separately, but no one was detained or arrested,” he said.
A passenger plane told CNN, through the micro-site Twitter messages, that the police had handcuffed and taken two passengers.
“Handcuffing someone does not necessarily mean that person is arrested,” said Schadler. “Nobody is in custody, under arrest or anything of that kind,” he said.
