SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A hijack threat halted an American Airlines flight just before takeoff Thursday, leaving the New York-bound jet sitting on the tarmac for several hours while it was searched and passengers were removed for extra scrutiny.
The FBI later determined that the telephoned threat wasn't credible, but in the wake of the 9⁄11 attacks and a series of airline scares in the past year, the incident still rattled nerves as it played out live on national TV.
Police were investigating who called in the hijacking threat and what their motivation might have been.
Although passengers described the scene aboard the Boeing 767 headed to John F. Kennedy International Airport as calm, witnesses said a man and a woman sitting in the back row were taken off in handcuffs. But they were quickly released and allowed to rebook their flights.
The couple confirmed to an Associated Press reporter that they were the ones who had been removed from the plane but declined to identify themselves. They said authorities explained they were picked at random for questioning.
But a fellow passenger suggested the couple may have been targeted because of their appearance. Michael Anderson, 20, saw the couple at the American Airlines ticket counter after all the passengers were let off the detained plane and observed them carrying passports from Pakistan.
"It definitely seems like it was racial profiling, based on what they look like physically and the fact they are Pakistani. It seems like this was a false accusation," said Anderson, a Yale University sophomore who was heading back to school.
American Airlines Flight 24, with 163 passengers and a crew of 11, was already running 21⁄2 hours late when it pulled away from the gate at 10 a.m. Minutes later, it was being dispatched to a remote stretch of tarmac at San Francisco International Airport where it sat for two hours.
Police eventually entered through the back door and escorted the two passengers into a police car.
"The two passengers were taken off the plane separately, but we cannot discuss the specifics why," said FBI spokesman Joseph Schadler.
The couple declined to discuss the possibility that they may have been targeted because of their appearance, but said they were treated well and only questioned briefly before they were allowed to go to the ticket counter like all the other passengers.
"Of course we're upset, but I guess we can't blame them," the woman told the AP. "They're just doing their job."
Passenger Michael Kidd said he and his wife did not believe the couple had been racially profiled based on appearances alone.
The threat report originated from clerk at a business in Alameda, a city across San Francisco Bay from the airport, said Lt. Bill Scott. The clerk called police shortly after 9 a.m. Thursday and said the business had received an anonymous phone call "making a threat specifically about Flight 24," Scott said.
Schadler said officials acted quickly and the Transportation Security Administration ordered the plane away from the main terminal.
"We take any threat against an airline or potential terrorist activity very seriously," he said. "You treat them like it's real until proven otherwise because the cost of failure is so high."