2 Paris-bound flights diverted in US amid security scares
Bomb threat prompts Air France plane from Los Angeles to land in Salt Lake City; 2nd flight, from Washington, lands at Halifax, Nova Scotia
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Two Air France passenger planes heading from the US to Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport were diverted late Tuesday amid security scares.
Both planes landed safely, CNN reported.
The FBI was investigating the nature of the threat.
The flights “were subjects of anonymous threats received after their respective takeoffs,” an Air France statement explained.
“As a precautionary measure and to conduct all necessary security checks, Air France…decided to request the landings of both aircraft. Local authorities are carrying out complete inspections of the aircraft, the passengers and their luggage,” the carrier said, adding that the “source of the telephone call” was being investigated.
Air France flight 65 from Los Angeles, with 497 passengers on board, was diverted to the Salt Lake City International Airport after receiving a bomb threat, airline officials said.
The flight had left Los Angeles for France when the threat came in. It landed in Salt Lake City around 7:30 p.m. Passengers were getting off the plane as the FBI and airport police investigated, the website KSL.com said.
The Air France website said the flight was set to take off again in two hours’ time.
A second Air France flight, from Washington’s Dulles International Airport, was also diverted, and landed safely in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It had 298 passengers and crew. A passenger said there was “some kind of security threat,” CNN reported.
CBC News quoted Peter Spurway, spokesman for Halifax Stanfield International Airport, as saying that the airport’s main runway had been closed for the flight’s emergency landing. Passengers and crew were being held in “a secure area in the airport terminal.”
“Bomb-sniffing dogs” were searching the plane, passenger Yanni tiold CNN from Halifax.
#AF55, Washington-Paris, has also diverted and is on the ground in Halifax. https://t.co/MT4bJ7jdga pic.twitter.com/U9uhivoG7i
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) November 18, 2015
CNN noted that security precautions are stringent in the aftermath of Friday’s terror onslaught in Paris.
An analyst told the station that the threats might turn out to be a hoax, but that this was also a form of terrorism — designed to scare and to disrupt normal life.
The Times of Israel Community.