"It's probably safe to say there's been less security attention paid to cargo aircraft," he said. "It depends on how far back you go in terms of looking for packages sent from Yemen to the U.S."ĭent said he thought it was significant that the packages were sent on cargo, rather than passenger, planes. "We're looking for packages, but it's hard to put a number on it," the official said. "The decision was not based on specific information," an official told The Inquirer, "but out of concern about potential vulnerabilities."įederal agents still are searching for similar packages, a federal official briefed on the case said. The packages would have arrived in the United States about 4 or 5 a.m. The packages in England and Dubai were discovered after a Saudi Arabian intelligence operative passed information to the United States, one official told the AP. Intelligence personnel had been monitoring a suspected plot for days, officials said. officials told AP late Friday that the device may have contained PETN, the explosive used in an attempted attack on a commercial airliner on Christmas. The device discovered in England "may be some sort of" improvised explosive device, a source told The Inquirer. In Philadelphia, no inbound or outbound passenger flights were affected by the searches, airport spokeswoman Victoria Lupica said. Earlier in the day, police also stopped and searched a UPS truck in Brooklyn, N.Y., but found nothing dangerous. The Associated Press reported that Friday night, officials at JFK Airport investigated a British Airways flight from London, though an airline spokeswoman said passengers disembarked as normal after authorities met the flight. All four planes had cargo originating from Yemen, authorities said, but nothing of concern was reported found. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. "These were real threats."īesides the two planes in Philadelphia, authorities searched a cargo plane at Newark Liberty International Airport and an Emirates commercial flight that two Air Force F-15 jets escorted to John F. Charles Dent (R., Pa.), ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee's subcommittee on transportation security and infrastructure protection. "The detail was specific and credible," said U.S. Obama said the packages, which were intercepted in the United Arab Emirates and England, had been addressed to "two places of Jewish worship in Chicago."
President Obama said Friday that two suspicious packages sent from Yemen and bound for the United States contained hidden explosives, discoveries that touched off a wide-scale terrorism alert including the search of two cargo planes at Philadelphia International Airport.
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