Newark Philadelphia Airports: Planes Isolated, 'Suspicious Items'

Two Planes Have Been Segregated at Newark Liberty and Philadelphia International Airports Due to 'Suspicious Items' On Board

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Officials are not saying what those suspicious items may be, but the planes landed safely and then they were moved and are now being checked.

One plane is a UPS plane and the other is a commercial plane with no passengers on board.

Those people tested negative for hazardous materials.

The plane at Newark has not been identified.

Officials say they are taking these precautions due to an incident that happened overnight. A cargo flight flying from Yemen to Chicago, stopping at East Midlands Airport, was checked when it landed and crews found a toner cartridge with wires and powder that had been tampered with and changed, but tested negative for explosive materials.

Now they are taking no chances and are looking at similar cargo flights, especially those coming from Yemen into the United States.

CNN analyst Frances Fragos Townsend, former Homeland Security adviser in the Bush administration said they have received reports in the last 24 hours of explosive devices coming on planes from the Middle East and bound for Chicago synagogues, but they have not revealed any more information on these reports. 

The all-clear has now been given at East Midlands Airport and Newark Airport.

Metropolitan police in London said that reports that a suspected bomb was found on a plane in London are inaccurate, and a spokesperson for the Department of Transport said they were not aware of anything happening at a London airport, only at East Midlands Airport.

There are also a few checks going on in Dubai at this time, but no more information is being released. Both packages found in England and Dubai originated in Yemen. An official in the UAE has now confirmed that a suspicious device discovered in Dubai was headed for the United States and it contained explosive materials.

Officials are calling this a 'global security scare', and there is speculation that this may be some kind of a 'test run' to see how security services will react to a situation of this nature.