Plane Escorted By Jet Fighters To Land In Cincinnati

Jan. 6, 2004

An airplane that was escorted by fighter jets for a portion of the flight is expected landed at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport around 3:45 Tuesday afternoon with no initial problems.

Delta flight 043 from Paris, being operated in conjunction with Air France, was greeted with "heavy security," according to 9News reporter Hagit Limor.

9News has learned that a woman was removed from the plane before the flight took off from Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris because she was wearing a heated motorcycle jacket that contained electric wires.

Heater motorcycle jackets are common for motorcyclists to keep warm. The woman removed from the plane has been determined not to be a terror threat by US and French security officials.

Because the woman's jacket aroused suspicion, the TSA added the fighter jet escort. The 183rd F-16 fighter jets that were accompanying the plane stopped escorting the flight around 2:50 p.m. after it was confirmed that the woman was not a threat.

The woman's luggage was removed from the plane, and security officials were also initially concerned because the luggage possibly contained an MP3 music player.

The woman was able to rebook her flight after being removed from the Cincinnati flight.

The plane, a Boeing 767-300, had 181 passengers and 12 crewmembers.

Upon landing, the plane was taken to a remote part of the airport near the old DHL terminal area, and passengers and baggage will be screened individually and thoroughly, the source told 9News.

Before it was confirmed that the female passenger was not a threat, Chris Rhatigan, of the TSA's public affairs group in Washington D.C. told 9News:


"We have received information about a flight from Paris to Cincinnati that is prompting us to take extra precautions when the plane lands at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.

When the plane lands it will be parked away from the terminal area. All passengers and baggage will be taken off the aircraft and rescreened.

I can't speculate on the nature of the information that received. However, these are extraordinary times and we need to take all possible precautions."

Flight 043 is a regularly scheduled flight to Cincinnati from Paris.

"We're glad that the proper security measures are being taken," said Eric Summe, Delta Air Line's director of Government and Public Affairs. "We obviously cooperate in full with the TSA. Any needs that they would have, we'd be there to help them."

About

"When we heard that there was figher pilots we wanted to come see," said a man who came to the airport's observation area with his son to watch the plane land.

Approximately 25 people gathered at the observation area to watch the landing, many of whom said they learned of the unusual flight through news reports.

This is not the first escorted flight recently. British Airways flight 223 was escorted into Dulles Airport by American fighter planes last Wednesday. Some other recent trans-oceanic flights have been cancelled.

http://www.wcpo.com/news/2004/local/01/06/plane.html