An American Eagle flight arriving at New York City’s LaGuardia Airport on Saturday afternoon was deplaned on the tarmac due to a potential security issue, according to a statement from American Airlines.
The flight, operated as American Airlines flight 4817, was evacuated “in response to reports by passengers of suspicious and erratic behavior by a fellow passenger,” according to a statement from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
“Law enforcement and first responders met the aircraft and the passenger involved in the incident has been taken into custody,” Republic Airways said.
The aircraft declared an emergency on Saturday “in response to passenger behavior near the end of the flight,” according to a statement from the air carrier.
Passengers told Port Authority Police at one point during the flight the passenger reached for his luggage and they were scared, Port Authority spokesperson Thomas Topousis told CNN. There were 76 passengers and six crew aboard the flight, Topousis added.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul wrote in a tweet that officials are “monitoring the situation, and there is no reason to believe there is any danger to New Yorkers at this time.”
Operations at the airport were running normally after the incident, according to a Saturday evening tweet from the airport’s official Twitter handle.
“The earlier incident involving a disruptive American Airlines/Republic Airways passenger and an evacuation of passengers has been resolved,” the tweet said.
One passenger described what happened
Earlier Saturday, the pilot alerted authorities on the ground of the incident and when the plane landed on a runway, a “runway exit from the airplane was performed to clear passengers from the airliner,” according to the earlier Port Authority statement.
Investigators interviewed the passenger who was acting suspicious as well as several passengers who were sitting closest to that person in order to learn more about what took place aboard the flight, the Port Authority added.
The Port Authority Police Department called in the New York City Fire Department to assist with a flight making an emergency landing, the FDNY told CNN.
Indianapolis resident Laura Bergdoll who was on the flight with her 7-year-old son told CNN as soon as the plane landed “the pilots and flight attendants started yelling ‘Evacuate! Evacuate!’ and we all got off the plane.”
Bergdoll said she heard “someone was acting suspiciously and made some type of bomb threat.”
The flight was an American Eagle flight 4817, operated by Republic Airways, which originated from Indianapolis and was arriving at LaGuardia, according to the airline statement.
The Federal Aviation Administration is aware of the incident and calling it a security incident where all passengers were safely deplaned.
The Transportation Security Administration said Saturday’s incident “was an example of a ‘See Something, Say Something’ situation” according to a statement from TSA spokesperson Sari Koshetz.
Passengers reported seeing suspicious behavior on the aircraft to the flight crew and the flight crew then alerted the captain, who then in turn “took the precaution of parking away from the terminal,” Koshetz said.
The New York Port Authority Police responded to the incident along with an Explosive Ordnance Disposal and a K9 team and cleared the situation, Koshetz added.
(CNN: Amended headline)
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