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Passengers exit Air France flight 65, from Los Angeles to Paris, after an emergency landing in Salt Lake City, Nov. 17, 2015.(Photo: Courtesy Kathleen Ingley)
Two Air France flights were diverted Tuesday night.
The airline confirmed that a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>bomb threat prompted the it to interrupt Air France Flight 65<span style="color: Red;">*</span>headed from Los Angeles to Paris and divert it to Salt Lake City.
Passengers were exiting the plane as the FBI and airport police began investigating, according to KSL-TV in Salt Lake City. The investigation was expected to last a few hours, the news organization reported.
Kathleen Ingley, 65, of Phoenix, said she and other passengers on Flight 65 were finishing dinner service when the air pressure began to change. Ingley, a freelance journalist and former Arizona Republic editorial writer, was flying to Paris to visit her daughter's family, a trip she makes three or four times a year.
"And then the flight attendants told us we would be making an emergency landing," Ingley said by phone from the Salt Lake City International Airport. "They told us to put trays on the floor and tighten our seat belts and get anything out of the aisles. No one had any idea what the problem was. Every possible scenario runs through your mind."
Emergency vehicles sit parked near an Air France plane that was diverted to Salt Lake City International Airport, Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2015, in Salt Lake City. Officials said two Air France flights bound for Paris from the U.S. had to be diverted because of anonymous threats issued after they took off, but both planes landed safely.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Ravell Call, AP)
The plane was greeted on the tarmac by more than a dozen emergency vehicles. Ingley said passengers exited the plane with their bags and were bused to another part of the airport to be interviewed one-on-one and have their bags searched.
Officials on the ground at the airport told passengers that a bomb threat had prompted the emergency landing, Ingley said.
Recording artist Trevor Moran tweeted that he was on the flight.
Air France said it also diverted a flight that departed the Washington, D.C., area for Paris and redirected it to Halifax because of a bomb threat. A spokesperson for Halifax Stansfield International Airport told the CBC that passengers were leaving the plane — Air France Flight 55.
Air France posted a statement on Twitter late Tuesday saying both flights had been subjects of anonymous threats received by after their respective take-offs." It did not elaborate on the threats but said authorities would conduct an investigation to identify "the source of the telephone call."
Contributing: The Arizona Republic
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