ATLANTA, Jan 25 — Bomb threats against two US airline flights yesterday turned out to be a hoax, after North American air defense F-16 fighter jets were scrambled to escort the passenger planes to their destination in Atlanta.

Delta Airlines flight 1156 from Portland, and Southwest Airlines flight 2492 from Milwaukee both landed safely at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, where they were met by FBI agents with bomb sniffing dogs. No bombs were found aboard either flight and the Atlanta airport has returned to normal operations.

The crisis began when a Twitter user going by the name Zortic contacted Delta’s customer service Twitter account with a tweet saying, “I have a bomb on one of your planes, but I forgot which one when I left the airport. Can you help me find it?”

Zortic claimed there was a bomb in the rear of the Delta flight from Portland, and in a message to Southwest, also claimed to have placed a bomb aboard the flight from Milwaukee.

Those tweets have since been deleted.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command scrambled fighter jets from McEntire Joint National Guard Base in South Carolina, said NORAD spokesman Preston Schlachter. A pair of fighter jets accompanied each aircraft as it landed, he said.

Southwest said in a statement 86 passengers were aboard its flight, and they were being rescreened.

A Delta spokesman said by email its plane was carrying 180 passengers.

The incident comes five days after bomb threats were made against two other Delta flights. One was arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York from San Francisco, and another was departing the New York airport for Tel Aviv. — Reuters

A Delta spokesman said by email its plane was carrying 180 passengers. — Next Media pic