Passenger Comment Prompts Grounding Of Airliner In San Francisco
A TACA Airlines plane bound for Central America was grounded at San Francisco International Airport early Tuesday.
The Airbus 320 was scheduled to depart at 1:30 a-m, but a flight attendant thought she heard a passenger say he had a bomb in his carry-on luggage.
The jet was headed for El Salvador and Costa Rica, but, instead, was towed to a remote location.
Authorities searched the plane´s interior and dogs sniffed passengers´ luggage.
The searches turned up nothing unusual. All 90 passengers were asked to leave the plane and were re-screened. The flight finally departed at 6:15 a-m.
An airport spokesman says there may be “some confusion” about what the passenger said.
El Salvador-based TACA is one of Central America´s largest airlines. It travels to Central America from San Francisco five days a week.
