5 new threats disrupt flights

Five bomb threats that turned out to be hoaxes disrupted U.S. domestic and international flights on Tuesday, airline officials and media reports said. It was the second time in eight days that authorities have had to investigate numerous threats against airlines.

Police met U.S. Airways flight 648, with 88 passengers and five crew on board, when it landed at Philadelphia International Airport because of a “possible security threat,” said Victoria Lupica, a spokeswoman for U.S. Airways’ parent company, American Airlines Group Inc.

No explosives were found.

NBC and CNN reported that other U.S. commercial flights received bomb threats on Tuesday: a United Airlines flight to Chicago, Delta Air Lines flight to Atlanta and a Volaris flight from Portland, Ore., to Guadalajara, Mexico. The planes landed safely and were searched, and passengers were deplaned, according to CNN.

“Passengers exited the plane as usual,” said United spokesman Charles Hobart. “We are working with law enforcement in their review.”A fifth flight operated by Korean Air Lines and bound for San Francisco was still in the air, NBC reported.

The Transportation Security Administration and Federal Aviation Administration referred queries to the FBI, but FBI officials were not immediately available to comment. Separately, at least 188 flights on United, or about 9 percent of its total flights, were delayed on Tuesday, according to flight tracker FlightAware.com.

The FAA halted the airline’s flights for 39 minutes because of what it described as automation issues. Hobart said the airline began delaying flights about 9 a.m. EDT “to ensure aircraft departed with proper dispatching” and resumed departures a short time later.