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NORAD jets fly after bomb threats against 2 US planes

Passengers are taken off a Delta plane on a taxiway at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport after a bomb threat was received against the flight on January 26, 2015. (WSB-TV photo)

Bomb threats have been made against two commercial flights at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the world’s busiest.

Jets from North American Aerospace Defense Command met the two planes in the air and escorted  them “as a precautionary measure” after officials “received word of a possible bomb threat on Twitter” on Saturday, said Preston Schlachter, a military spokesman.

Bomb squads appeared after Delta flight 1156 and Southwest flight 2492 landed safely at the airport at around 1:45 pm ET and the passengers were evacuated.

"Due to a security situation, the aircraft operating Flight 2492 was taken to a remote area of the airport where customers and the aircraft are being re-screened,” said a spokesman for Southwest Airlines, which operates one of the two planes.

According to statistics, more than 94 million passengers traveled through the airport in 2013.

Asked whether the threats were credible, Stephen Emmett, an FBI spokesman, said “That’s the best way to characterize” them.

According to an airport spokesman, the threats concerned the cargo onboard the planes.

NT/NT


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