Anonymous threats made against 6 international flights
On Monday, anonymous threats were made against six international flights, resulting in U.S. military jets escorting an Air France plane into New York City.
Air France Flight 22 was headed to New York's John F. Kennedy Airport when someone claimed a chemical weapon was on the plane, the FBI said; the plane was cleared after it landed. While an American Airlines flight from Birmingham, England, to JFK was in the air, authorities received a threatening call regarding that flight, and the pilot was instructed to land and taxi away from the terminal, The Guardian reports. The threat was later deemed not credible and the plane was allowed to go to the terminal.
Threats were also made against a Saudi Arabian Airlines plane going to New York, a United Airlines flight from Madrid to Newark, New Jersey, and Delta planes headed to Boston from Paris and to Newark from London. At 6:30 a.m. Monday, Maryland State Police said, they received an anonymous call at the McHenry barracks threatening commercial airlines, and notified the FBI. It's possible that the calls that came later targeting the planes all came from the same source, authorities said.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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