Bomb scare disrupts Canada flight
Threat called false alarm after fighter jets escort Cathay Pacific flight into Vancouver.
Canadian F-18 Hornet fighter jets intercepted the Airbus 8340 and flew alongside it until it landed around 1:40pm.
Passengers said they had seen the fighter jets through the aircraft’s windows.
“I was scared,” one passenger told broadcaster CTV. “It was flying very near to our plane.”
“Everyone was quite surprised and taking pictures,” Jing Vance, another passenger, told the Vancouver Sun.
The bomb threat was the latest in a series of scares and failed attacks using planes and other methods of transport on the US.
On Christmas Day, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a young Nigerian, allegedly tried to
blow up a Detroit-bound plane, using explosives sewn into his underwear.
The foiled bombing triggered global alarm, leading the US to adopt stringent new screening and security measures at airports around the world, despite the already tight security adopted after the September 11, 2001, attacks.