29 Oct 10: Canadian Fighter Helps Escort Jetliner from Yemen

[The Bread Guy]

Hat tip to MarkOttawa & Unambiguously Ambidextrous - this from the Associated Press:

A commercial passenger jet that was also carrying cargo from Yemen was escorted from the Canadian border to New York City by two military fighter jets, U.S. officials said. The officials said there was no known threat associated with the plane, but it was escorted to John F. Kennedy International Airport as a precaution.

The plane landed shortly after 3:30 p.m. Passengers walked off the plane on two covered stairways and then onto the tarmac, dragging their luggage behind them. Several police cars surrounded the airliner.

Authorities on Friday were investigating whether suspicious packages shipped aboard cargo planes from Yemen to the U.S. were part of a terrorist plot.

FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said the plane - Emirates Airlines Flight 201 - was met at JFK by FBI and Port Authority police. He said the action was being taken solely because the plane, which took off from Dubai, was also carrying cargo from Yemen.

John Cornelia, a spokesman for U.S. North American Aerospace Defense Command, said the airliner was escorted by a Canadian fighter to the U.S. border, where two U.S. fighters took over. U.S. fighter jets routinely escort airliners when there may be a problem in order to observe the aircraft and be prepared to take any action if necessary ....

 

[a.schamb]

Turns out the materials were explosive: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/10/29/us-planes-packages.html

U.S. President Barack Obama said Friday that suspicious packages found on planes in the United Kingdom and Dubai contained explosive materials that were bound for the U.S.

Obama said the packages were headed for "two places of Jewish worship in Chicago" and that he has directed authorities to take whatever steps necessary to protect Americans from a terrorist attack.

"An initial examination of those packages has determined that they do apparently contain explosive material," he said.

U.S. officials told The Associated Press that they believed the two packages contain the same powerful explosive used in the failed Christmas Day 2009 airline bombing.

The officials said full testing has not been completed, but initial indications are the packages contained PETN, a chemical that was also a component of shoe bomber Richard Reid's explosive in 2001

 

[Sigs Pig]

Try not to confuse the two (three) events. The plane that Canada escorted was found clean. "there was no known threat associated with the plane"

The explosives found were on two other flights overseas.

ME

 

[GAP]

Yemen bomb disarmed with only 17 minutes to spare
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Agence France-Presse · Thursday, Nov. 4, 2010

PARIS — An Al-Qaeda bomb intercepted in Britain last week part way between Yemen and the United States was disarmed just 17 minutes before it was programmed to detonate, French officials said Thursday.

Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said that one of two parcel bombs found last Thursday at airports in Dubai and Britain was close to exploding, and officials in his office told AFP he was referring to the British package.

“There were parcel bombs from Yemen heading for the United States, and I can tell you, for example, that one of these parcels was disarmed 17 minutes before the planned explosion,” Mr. Hortefeux told France 2 television.

He made the remark during a more general discussion of the threat of militant attacks on France and was not pressed for more information. He did not say what was the source of his information about the imminent blast.
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