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Subscribe to RSSA passenger jet flying from New York to Moscow makes an emergency landing in Iceland after a caller claimed there was a bomb on board. NBCNews.com's Richard Lui reports.
Updated at 7:01 a.m. ET: A passenger jet flying from New York to Moscow made an emergency landing in Iceland on Thursday after a caller claimed there was a bomb on board, a spokeswoman for Russian airline Aeroflot said.
Fridthor Eydal, the manager at Reykjavik's Keflavik International Airport, told NBC News the Airbus A330 with 253 passengers on board landed safely at 6:27 a.m. (2:27 a.m. ET) and the plane had been evacuated.
"There was an anonymous call saying that there was an explosive device on the plane, which was already in the air," spokesman Irina Dannenberg said.
The call was made to the New York City police, Dannenberg told the ITAR-Tass news agency.
Passengers were going through standard security procedures on the ground in Reykjavik and would later be transported to a nearby hotel, local police told NBC News.
Police planned to search the aircraft later Thursday, authorities said.
Second plane searched
Emergency teams also searched an airplane in the city of Voronezh, 300 miles south of Moscow, for explosives on Thursday after an anonymous phone call was made to the city's airport, but no bomb was found, state-run RIA reported.
Complete World coverage on NBCNews.com
A suicide bomb blast in the international arrivals area at Moscow's Domodedovo airport in January 2011 killed 37 people. Islamist insurgents in Russia's North Caucasus claimed responsibility.
Suicide bombers identified as women from the North Caucasus blew up two planes on domestic Russian flights nearly simultaneously in August 2004, killing all 90 people aboard.
NBC News' staff, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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The punishment for this type of crime should be simple. Death or life in prison with no parole. And in this case they should be extradited to Russian to spend their life in prison there.
Death for making a phone call? I'm guessing you are not a lawyer.
This is not 'just a phone call'. It is a terroristic death threat against 250 people. I would hope someday you are on the receiving end. Regardless, you are still a stupid idiot.
I see MSN didn't have any room for a story about the gunman shooting up Conservative Family Research Council. I'm sure if it were a right winger who shot a leftist organization it would be a none issue 12 hours later.
Really, had your eyes checked recently since I just read the story on MSN
So your saying if I pull up MSN I could find the story somewhere on the main page? Didn't see it. Oh, you mean if I dig around I could find it buried somewhere, or the short piece they did yesterday with little information to go by.
That story has absolutely nothing to do with these bomb threats.
Talk about trolls.....
So, I take it you support the death penalty or life without parole for making death threats against 250 people. A somewhat ambiguous position, having so much regard for threats against peoples' lives that you support ending peoples' lives for doing so, don't you think?
Denver Bill, and you are? What does "lawyer" have to do with it? All lawyers do is propagate and perpetuate chaos for job security. Yes, a person who makes a "phone call", as you put it, endangers the lives of hundreds, costs the airlines hundreds of thousands of dollars, screws up the entire system for hours or days, costs time in the lives of the passengers, probably costs the passengers financially, probably affects the schedules of a few thousand people. It's not just a "phone call". Seriously, are you an adult American male? Hop off your metrosexual high horse and be a man.
False Flag: can't justify population controlling measures unless there are periodic reasons to justify it.
Where's da bomb? Where's da bomb?
Apparently, you anti-punishment crybabies will only get it when you, your children, your spouse, etc. are the victim(s) of such. And, probably not even then. Bomb threats are not funny any longer. Your sickening politically correct libtard attitudes are not funny any longer. Creeps, criminals and terrorists aren't funny any longer. They are a drain on civilization that we can no longer afford. Therefore, I propose that when creeps, criminals and terrorists are convicted that they are sentenced to reside with Denver Bill and or Shandril for their entire sentence. Denver Bill and Shandril will be required, therefore, to support them financially and be personally responsible for any and all illegal actions that their charges commit. And, hey, they can sleep in one of your children's rooms. That'll be OK, won't it?
"It's not the things you don't know that make you ignorant. It's the things you do know that just ain't so." --- Mark Twain
So apparently you think it's OK to imprison somebody for life without parole or sentence them to death for making threats. What do you propose as a penalty for assault? Kill them twice?
I believe Denver Bill is a Union worker that systematically calls in bomb threats near the end of a large projects to drag them out. This is a common tactic used by many union workers as it can push the end of a job back at least a week. Officials then spend a day looking for a bomb that does not exist all the while the workers still get full pay sitting in the pub. Sometimes we averaged 2 calls per week...
Is this why you think Bomb Threats are not that serious Mr Bill?
I am not a union worker. My post was in response to the first poster, so let me pose the same question to you that I did to him and Pray Hard, so far without receiving an answer: Do you believe that life in prison or the death penalty is suitable punishment for making a threat?
And Russia which has a huge problem with Islamic terrorists is still plating around with Islamist or Arab extremists in the mideast likeIiran and Syria. It seems they still want to dig their own grave.They shoud be working fully with the U.S Europe and all countries around the world that are confronting the plague of Islamic terrorism.Even if this call proves to be a prank( though still a very serious crime) every day there are many deadly attacks.Wake up Russia.You are the infidels as well as the rest of us!!
Denver Bill
The straight answer for your question is ... YES! Its not like he threatened to tickle someone; YOu must understand, its already legal to defend your self to the death if you believe your life is in danger, there is no difference with this guy. How many believed their lives were in danger from this threat and how many now feel others are in danger if he ever walks free? No difference!
Thank you for being the first person to give me a straightforward response, devoid of name-calling and innuendo. Now we can agree to disagree, and in a civilized manner. I think whoever made that call deserves imprisonment, but not for life. He or she is deserving of punishment, and I support the death penalty, but not for making telephoned threats.
I live in Colorado, home of the "make my day" law, and I own firearms. I know when their use is justified and how to use them. I believe that any law that justifies deadly force does so when your life is in imminent danger. If you know of a different one, please educate me.
I'll bet $100 that the caller's god is Allah and his prophet is Mohammed.
It looks like if terrorists can't get a bomb through security, they might be calling in and claiming bombs are on planes.At least everyone got off the plane safely.Better to be safe always. Planes should always be under tight security to ensure no one has access to them between flights.It's easy to let things relax and slip up. I sure hope there is surveillance constantly to help backup ground patrol at the airports. If something should ever happen, it would be critical evidence later.
Hopefully they can track 'em down.
Terrorism is an avenue with many drivers.
This Aeroflot flight was from New York/JFK airport to Moscow- the plane was already in the air when Police in NYC notified Russians. The airplane is being searched icluding luggage by security forces in Reykjavik's Keflavik International airport in Iceland. With the billions invested in airport safety and security- how on earth could there have been a bomb implanted in luggage?
How would they get a bomb on board - by shipping it since packages shipped are not screened although Congress told Homeland Security to start screening all packages several years ago, the airlines and Homeland Security have not complied.
The TSA will now require all aircraft to go through a body scanner or be patted down.
I agree with cc770. When they find who did it, I hope they make an example out of them.
denver bil and shandrill, Surely you don't consider the seriousness of making a phone call for a bomb scare on a plane the same as a phone call to order a pizza?
Apparently, they do. I've already told Denver Bill to man up. But, he's probably a lawyer which would make manning up impossible.
CIA, FBI, TSA: pick your letters.
The obvious way to prevent that kind of prank call would be to either ban telephones or to ban airplanes, or both. Then everybody would be safe. :D
Bombs are like the illegal bath salts that get people high or insane. There are so many ways of making them and the TSA is trained to search and recognize them. There are a lot of other things that are just as dangerous. Thank the officials and the TSA for the quick response and that the people are safe.
Any threat must be taken seriously.
...
This is serious.
Fortunately, the president will have more flexibility to investigate this with Putin after the election.
...
Yes, President Romney will...not sure how he will get along with Putin though.
Three planes in Frankfurt on August 14, 2012 were grounded with bomb threats (one had already taxied out and was turned around and taken to a safe place, investigators boarded the plane, dogs were then brought on, passengers kept on the plane for almost 2 hours during all of this--US Airways Flight 703 from Frankfurt to Philly--flight was cancelled, passengers put up and fed in hotel, flew out next day). Am not seeing this story anywhere in the press. Was there a bomb on board? US Martial Arts team was on the plane.
I think the real story is Iceland has Special Forces. Who knew they had a military? I seem to remember they had nothing during the "Cod War" with Great Britian.
Russia takes American Terrorism very seriously, ask any Russian. It's freedom of speech!
If there were somebody onboard that plane with a problem with their heart that could be something to make their heart stop or if there were a woman that was with child that could cause a serious problem for her as well.
I think that if they catch this person there should be serious jail time at the very least and that is a fact.
Its either Putin trying to keep Americans out of Russia or terrorist forces trying to divide Pro-Democratic Russians from America so the same process that is occuring in Syria can also occur in Russia.
Pro-Democratic Russians? Maybe so...but Putin? I think he wants to be the next Secretary General of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.....read...Communists!
But Russia has a lot of enemies too, especially after laying waste to the Chechen rebels. A lot of angry people as well live in the area of the next Winter Olympics. As i understand it , most of them were forced out of Russia back in the day, lot of resentment still. Can't discount those people either.
I long for the days of the cold war , at least you knew who the enemy was!
Does anyone recall the Al-qaida video shortly after 9-11? BinLaden's second (I forget his name) said that we will lose our lives and we will lose our money. This is terorism plain and simple.
Money this time, lives the next. We shouldn't differentiate between the two. It is the same "war."
So, yes, I for one would be for extermination or life in prison
Some douch bag was late for his flight, or his stranged GF is on it.
Either he was late, his GF was on board, or he wanted to stop in Reykjavik and pick up some hakarl.