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Bomb
Threat Against Brazilian Jet Sparks Alarm At L.A. Airport
LOS
ANGELES, March 8 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - U.S. authorities were
searching a Varig Airlines jet at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
Thursday after an anonymous bomb threat was made against the plane arriving from
Rio de Janeiro, officials said in news agency reports.
"A
person called Varig Brasil after the plane had landed in LAX saying that there
was a bomb on board," police spokesman Guillermo Campos said.
Authorities
allowed passengers to disembark, as the aircraft and luggage on board were being
searched in an isolated corner of the airfield, Agence France-Presse (AFP)
reported.
Earlier
Thursday, another incident at the airport sparked a partial evacuation for about
30 minutes of one of the terminals, after authorities spotted an object they
thought might have been a grenade, the spokesman said.
It
was the third evacuation at LAX in a week amid tight security measures in place
after the September 11 terror strikes on U.S. targets.
On
Monday, a three-and-a-half hour alert was triggered early in the morning when
baggage screeners found an exact replica of a military hand grenade in the hand
luggage of a passenger flying to the western U.S. city of Seattle, AFP reported.
The
man was arrested and was being held by authorities, though it was unclear if he
would be charged with any offense.
"It
defies belief that someone would pass a hand grenade, whether or not it
explosive or inert, in baggage that is going to go on an airplane," Los
Angeles Mayor Jim Hahn told a news conference.
The
outline of the dummy grenade was spotted in a gift package with the help of the
busy airport's new one million dollar bomb-screening devices, airport officials
said.
Some
three flights were cancelled and 21 others delayed by the security alert that
sent bomb squad officers, police dogs and fire crews rushing to the airport's
terminals two and three, officials said.
Passengers
ejected from the building massed on the pavements outside the terminals as
security personnel swept the area before they were allowed back into the
buildings to be re-screened.
The
alert came just four days after around 10,000 passengers were evacuated and
re-screened after a metal detector was found to have been switched off on
Thursday, forcing the delay of around 400 flights.
According
to a LAX news release, the re-screening measure was in line with their official
security procedures "when it is learned that people have entered the
secured areas without proper security screening."
Two
other major alerts occurred at the Los Angeles airport last month, costing
airlines and the airport tens of thousands of dollars.
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