Fri, Jun 03, 2005
Transponder Malfunction?
ANN REAL TIME NEWS -- 1555 EDT: A Virgin Atlantic Airbus
A340-600 landed safely at Halifax, Nova Scotia on Friday after its
transponder somehow emitted a code indicating the plane had been
hijacked. There was no immediate word on what activated the alarm
-- only that the crew and nearly 300 people on board were
safe.
"There was no threat associated to the plane," RCMP Constable
Joe Taplin told the Canadian Press.
The perception of threat by Canadian authorities was relatively
short-lived, Taplin said. The aircraft was intercepted at 1010
local -- approximately two hours before it landed in Halifax. The
Airbus was cleared by means of a secret communication between the
intercepting Canadian warplanes and the inbound passenger
flight.
When asked how the intercepting CF-18 pilots knew the pilot
aboard the A340 was all right, one Virgin official told ABC News,
"We have ways of knowing he is OK, which we cannot let know."
Once on the ground, the aircraft was boarded by black-clad
members of a local emergency response team to ensure there really
was no trouble aboard the flight. They interviewed both crew
members and passengers.
"We had our emergency response team go on the airplane to
determine what was actually taking place," Taplin told the CP.
The A340-600 carried 271 passengers and a crew of 16, according
to Virgin. The London-New York flight was to be processed in
Halifax before departing late in the day for its original
destination.
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