Jet lands in Kansas City to check 'suspicious device'

[January 06, 2014]  By Kevin Murphy

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) — An American Airlines jet on a cross-country flight made an emergency landing in Kansas City on Sunday after a "suspicious device" was found that turned out not to be a safety threat, an airport official said.

The 767 jet bound for New York from San Francisco landed at Kansas City International Airport at about 1 p.m. because of concern about an object that resembled a flash drive in a bathroom, said airport spokesman Joe McBride.

All 227 passengers and crew got off the plane at the airport and waited several hours while it was inspected by authorities. Bomb and arson investigators and a dog checked out the plane and the object, Kansas City Police Darryl Forte said in a Twitter statement. "Not an explosive device," Forte wrote.

The FBI also investigated, but a spokesman declined comment Sunday evening.

McBride said there were no stated threats associated with the device but American Airlines used caution in landing the plane for inspection in light of attacks or attempted attacks on aircraft in recent years.

"This is a new day and age," McBride said.

(Reporting by Kevin Murphy; editing by Edith Honan and Eric Walsh)

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