A scenic view of an aircraft flying overhead Raleigh, North Carolina. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
The morning of June 2 began with a swathe of bomb threats called-in against airlines, mostly chemical in nature. The threats are now deemed hoaxes but affected at least 5 passenger planes, both on the ground and in the air, in the early hours of Tuesday morning. According to CNBC, fights affected include:
Flight 648 from San Diego to Philadelphia… a Delta flight to Atlanta, a United flight to Chicago O’Hare, a Korean Air flight to San Francisco and a Volare Air flight to Gudalajara, Mexico
The international hoax was deemed non-credible in all flights involved, but flight 648 was evacuated on the tarmac in Philadelophia as it was the first flight affected.
Everyone OK. Sister station WPVI reporting bomb threat may be part of a widespread hoax. Federal agents investigating pic.twitter.com/p0ifk8gRDH
— Jason Martinez (@10NewsJason) June 2, 2015
The bomb threats were called into the TSA Operations Center in Washington, DC and were specifically cited as chemical in nature. The threats came a day after a report was released about TSA effectivity. An undercover team discovered dismal safety procedures at dozens of airports in the United States. CNN reports:
According to a report based on an internal investigation, “red teams” with the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General were able to get banned items through the screening process in 67 out of 70 tests it conducted across the nation.