Editor’s note: This is a developing story. More details will be added once they become available.
A passenger's apparently unfounded statement alluding to a bomb aboard a passenger jet about to depart San Diego International Airport led authorities to ground the flight Tuesday before evacuating and searching the aircraft and its contents.
One person was arrested following reports of a possible bomb threat on a Hawaiian Airlines flight set to take off from San Diego International Airport, leading to the evacuation of the plane, officials said.
“An arrest has been made,” Port of San Diego spokesperson Brianne Mundy Page said in an email. There was no immediate information about a suspect or possible charges, but Page said more details would be released later Monday.
The emergency at the bayside air-travel hub began at about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, when a customer on Honolulu-bound Hawaiian Airlines Flight 15 was overheard "making a threat to the safety of our aircraft," airline spokeswoman Marissa Villegas said in a prepared statement.
The remark involved a "possible bomb" on the aircraft, according to the San Diego Harbor Police Department. The statement was overheard as the airliner was in the process of "pushback from the (boarding) gate," Villegas stated.
"As a precaution, the captain immediately taxied the Airbus A330 to a safe location on the airfield, where it was met with local and federal law enforcement and guests were safely deplaned," she said.
A total of 293 people, including 10 crew members, were evacuated, according to the airline. The passengers were transported by bus off the airfield to await a rescheduled flight.
Live images posted online by CBS8 showed the jetliner parked alongside a runway with its front passenger stairway deployed and personnel nearby with service dogs inspecting luggage that apparently had been removed from the plane.
Among agencies that responded along with a harbor police SWAT team were the FBI, Joint Terrorism Task Force and San Diego Fire-Rescue Department, according to Brianne Mundy Page, a spokeswoman for the Port of San Diego.
The personnel found nothing suspicious on the aircraft, Mundy Page said.
There was no immediate word on whether anyone was detained or arrested over the incident.
The situation remained under investigation at midday but had caused no additional flight delays, San Diego County Regional Airport Authority spokeswoman Nicole Hall said.
Hawaiian Airlines was "working to get all (the delayed travelers) to Honolulu as quickly as possible," the company representative said.
Anyone with information about the incident is encouraged to call SDHPD's nonemergency line at (619) 686-6272.
The airport is part of the Harbor Police’s jurisdiction.
As of 10:41 a.m., 37 flights have been delayed and one flight canceled at the airport, according to Flight Aware. San Diego International spokesperson Nicole Hall said operations are continuing as normal and the delays shown on Flight Aware are unrelated to the bomb threat.
If you are traveling from San Diego airport Tuesday, check SAN’s flight status page ahead of time.
