NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Crews from the Port Authority Police Department surrounded a JetBlue plane after a communications glitch sparked a security scare at John F. Kennedy International Airport Tuesday evening.
Flight 1623 was departing JFK for Los Angeles when the Federal Aviation Administration says the aircraft experienced a radio equipment problem around 8 p.m.
The plane sent a false alarm to the airport’s control tower while it was taxiing to take off, according to the Port Authority.
The airline says officials responded to the aircraft “out of an abundance of caution.” The scene was cleared after about an hour, but not before passengers took to social media to voice their concerns.
“My worst nightmare,” Twitter user @Alexa_Curtis said. “Honestly thought we were going to die.”
CEO for The Energy Project Tony Schwartz says he was also aboard the flight.
“Created a security crisis,” Schwartz tweeted. “10 heavily armed cops boarded plane and just left. After 1.5 hours on runway being towed back to gate. Wow.”
The Airbus A320 returned to the gate for inspection, where passengers deboarded without incident.
