As a result of the possible terror threat at Philadelphia and Newark airports Friday morning, U.S. Military fighter jets escorted a flight from Yemen to JFK International Airport Friday afternoon.
The United Arab Emirates flight from Yemen, flanked by U.S. fighter jets, landed at 3:30 p.m. in Queens, N.Y. U.S. fighter jets met Canadian fighter jets that were escorting the plane to the U.S.-Canadian border before 3 p.m. Friday.
Officials say the UAE plane from Yemen is a passenger flight. One of the suspicious packages from Yemen is in the cargo space in that plane, authorities say.
The extra security measures came about after two planes at Philadelphia International Airport and one plane at Newark Liberty Airport were swept and suspicious packages were searched Friday morning and afternoon.
All of the suspicious packages, not the planes, searched in the U.S. came from Yemen, according to officials. Yemen is the home of the al-Qaida branch that claimed responsibility for an attempted bombing of a U.S.-bound airliner on Christmas.
The initial terror alert came from intelligence officials in England and Dubai after two suspicious packages addressed to religious sites in Chicago were found in UPS and FedEx cargo planes there.
