A pair of Air France flights leaving the United States for Paris were diverted on Nov. 17 after anonymous bomb threats were received for the flights.
The hundreds of passengers from the flights, along with the crew, were removed safely from the aircraft, according to the Federal Aviation Administration and Air France.
Flight 65, which left Los Angeles for Paris, was able to safely land in Salt Lake City. The passengers and crew members, numbering 497 in total, were extracted from the Airbus A-380 and then accompanied into the airport terminal, according to a spokesman for the FAA.
The second affected flight, Flight 55, headed out to Paris from the Dulles International Airport just outside Washington D.C. The airplane landed in the Halifax International Airport at Nova Scotia, where a total of 262 passengers and crew members were able to safely disembark.
According to Air France, anonymous bomb threats were received for the two flights after the airplanes have taken off from their respective starting points on their way to Paris.
"As a precautionary measure and to conduct all necessary security checks, Air France, applying the safety regulations in force, decided to request the landings of both aircraft," said Air France.
Air France added that the aircraft, passengers and luggage were undergoing complete inspections from the authorities, and that an investigation has been launched to trace who made the anonymous bomb threats.
YouTube personality Trevor Moran, who was among the passengers on Flight 65, said that the pilot informed the flight's passengers that the aircraft had to do an emergency landing. Once on the ground, the passengers were loaded on buses that were already waiting for them.
"Everyone on the flight is waiting in this lobby. Nobody knows what's going on," Moran said.
Despite the safe landing of the flights, Jonathan Gilliam, law enforcement analyst for CNN, said that the incident calls for serious concern.
According to Gilliam, despite the bomb threats being a hoax, it can still be seen as an act of terrorism, as terrorism can be defined as a tactic being used to bring about political or psychological change in communities.
