Bomb Threat Forces Flight To Return To Seattle Airport

Wednesday, July 25th 2007, 5:51 pm

By: News On 6

SEATTLE (AP) _ A man who had missed his flight said there was a bomb aboard the plane Wednesday, forcing it to return to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport even though authorities did not believe the threat was legitimate, an airport spokeswoman said.

``The plane was brought back, erring on the side of caution, after he made that threatening statement,'' Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Jennifer Peppin said.

Airport police were questioning a man who told a gate agent there was a bomb on Northwest Airlines Flight 980 shortly after the plane left Seattle for Memphis around 12:33 p.m., airport spokeswoman Terri-Ann Betancourt said.

``After interviewing him, they said they do not believe it was a credible bomb threat,'' Betancourt said.

The man was never on the plane and had no luggage on the aircraft, Betancourt said. She said the man's motive was unclear, but ``it was clear he wanted the plane to come back.''

The plane, which had 142 passengers, returned to the airport around 1:15 or 1:20 p.m., Betancourt said. About a half-hour later the plane remained on the tarmac, its passengers and crew still inside.

Police were interviewing the pilots, trying to determine how extensive a security sweep they needed to make before allowing the plane to fly to Memphis.

Northwest spokesman Roman Blahoski said in a statement the airline ``apologizes to its customers for the inconvenience and expects flight 980 to depart Seattle as soon as possible.''