A Delta Air Lines plane that landed at Ben Gurion Airport from New York on Tuesday morning was moved to an isolated area of the airfield and searched after an anonymous report claimed a bomb had been planted on board.
The flight, Delta DL234 from John F. Kennedy International Airport, landed at around 8:30 a.m., according to Israeli media reports. Maariv reported that the warning was received while the aircraft was still in the air and that the crew relayed the alert to Israeli authorities.
After landing, the plane was directed to a remote parking stand away from other aircraft and the terminals. All passengers were taken off the plane, and Ben Gurion security teams began a thorough search of the aircraft and the passengers’ luggage.
The Israel Airports Authority said in a statement that following a report of a suspicious finding on a Delta aircraft that landed at Ben Gurion, the plane was transferred to a remote parking stand, all passengers disembarked safely, and the aircraft was being searched thoroughly by airport security.
Security officials said their assessment is that the report is a hoax, but they decided to carry out the full inspection as a precaution. No suspicious object or explosive device had been reported as of this writing.
The incident comes about two weeks after an attempted attack on a flydubai flight carrying Israeli passengers, which Israel Hayom described as an incident in which a terrorist pilot nearly crashed the plane. Israeli authorities have since tightened aviation security procedures.
On Monday, an Ethiopian Airlines flight to Israel was turned back about an hour after takeoff after it emerged that the pilot held Indonesian citizenship and was not authorized to land in Israel, according to Israeli media. Ynet reported that the pilot was replaced in Ethiopia with one cleared to land at Ben Gurion.
Delta resumed its New York to Tel Aviv service earlier this year after suspending flights during the war.
