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9/11 Survivor on AA Flight 24 grounded 5 hrs for terrorist threat

by UNCENSORED NEWS | August 19, 2010 at 02:29 pm

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An American Airlines flight bound for New York City leaving San Francisco, CA was stopped just before takeoff Thursday morning after someone called police and threatened to hijack the jetliner, authorities said. Randy Cohen, 50 was aboard the airliner, as one female co-passenger and journalist, Ms. Campbell McKellar was making Twitter announcements during the crisis. The passengers were worried they were being hijacked as authorities were removing 2 people off the plane suspected of making the threats. Cohen lived across the street from the WTC during 9/11 and was shaken during this new terrorist threat. He told reporters; "Man this can't happen again!"

A witness said two people were taken off the plane in handcuffs. The threat rattled nerves in San Francisco and beyond and marked the latest in a series of airline scares in the past year. American Airlines Flight 24 was grounded at San Francisco International airport at about 7:30 a.m. Thursday. Passengers were removed from the plane and taken by buses to a terminal where they were sent through security again.

It was the latest in a line of airplane scares in the past year, including the attempted Christmas bombing of a Detroit-bound jetliner by a Nigerian. In April, a Qatari diplomat who was on his way to an official visit with an imprisoned al-Qaida sleeper touched off a bomb scare in Colorado by slipping into an airline bathroom for a smoke.