NEW YORK — Two Fighter Jets intercepted and escorted an Air France flight to New York City after an anonymous threat was made on Monday… one of several threats made to multiple airplanes bound for different U.S. airports, law enforcement officials told ABC News.
A Saudi Airlines flight has also landed following similair threats. The Saudi Air flight was from Jeddah to New York.
Further warnings about ‘chemical weapons’ were phoned in relating to an American Airways flight landing from Birmingham, England, and a Delta flight coming into Newark.
At least five planes were being searched at JFK. As of 12-noon, two other flights are reporting the same concerns.
Fox 5’s Lisa Evers reports that Officials are concerned about a possible plot to disrupt and delay air travel in the New York area on the last day of the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
The threats, came from a phone call, claiming that there was a “chemical weapons threat” aboard the plane, WABC.com reports.
The caller said that four flights had devices on board but only specified the JFK-bound Air France flight.
The pilots were ordered to accompany the New York-bound flight as it headed towards the airport from Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris.
According to the New York Post, the Airbus A-330 from Paris was taken to a secure area of JFK Airport and searched.
So far a security check has turned up nothing.
Air France, stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the French flag carrier headquartered in Tremblay-en-France,. It is a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global airline alliance.
