NY-Bound Flight Grounded After Hijack Scare

Threatening call deemed 'non-credible'
By Emily Rauhala,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 20, 2010 2:41 AM CDT
NY-Bound Flight Grounded After Hijack Scare
Rick Epstein, a passenger on American Airlines Flight 24 bound for JFK, left, gets a new ticket at San Francisco International Airport on Thursday.   (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

American Airlines Flight 24 from San Francisco to New York was grounded last night after a caller threatened to hijack the plane. Authorities now say the threat was "non-credible," though the "suspicious male" behind the scare has not been identified, notes CNN. After the call, the plane was taken to a remote location and passengers were interviewed and re-screened by security personnel, ABC finds.

It was a tense couple of hours for passengers: "We weren't sure there was somebody on the plane or if there was something in the plane, a bomb or something like that," one man says. A couple holding Pakistani passports was removed from the flight for questioning and quickly released, the AP reports.
(More airplane stories.)

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