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Matt Molnar
2005-12-03, 10:58 PM
Bomb Threat Causes Plane Evacuation at Newark

Dec 3, 2005 5:00 pm US/Eastern
(1010 WINS) (NEWARK) A bomb threat scrawled in the bathroom of an airplane at a gate at Newark Liberty International Airport on Friday is believed to be an imitation of a similar threat that forced a jet to make an emergency landing in Kansas City a day earlier, authorities said.

Continental Airlines flight 2499, which had been scheduled to depart for Pittsburgh at around 12:20 p.m., was towed to a remote section of the airport, where it was searched for explosives before being cleared at 1:50 p.m., said Tony Ciavolella, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport.

Twenty passengers who were on the aircraft at Terminal C were removed and questioned by investigators while the search was being carried out. They were taken back to the terminal by bus, and were placed on a different plane, which took off at 3:15 p.m. to make the flight to Pittsburgh.

Port Authority police were notified at about 12:30 p.m. when someone saw a handwritten bomb threat scrawled in a restroom aboard the jet, according to a law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Airport police responded immediately, along with the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force.

The threat came a day after an America West Airbus jet made an emergency landing at Kansas City International Airport when someone left a note in the plane's bathroom that said: "Taliban is Here."

Friday's incident in Newark appeared to be the work of a copycat, the source said.

The America West plane was flying from Phoenix to Boston on Thursday when a passenger saw the note. The passenger notified the flight crew and the pilot landed the plane at about 1:30 p.m., authorities said.

After a search by the FBI, airport police and the Transportation Security Administration, passengers were allowed to board the America West plane again three hours later.

(© MMV Infinity Broadcasting Corp. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. In the interest of timeliness, this story is fed directly from the newswire and may contain occasional typographical errors. )