[Update 9:38 p.m. ET] The security issue was a bomb threat that had been called in at 10:43 a.m. (1:43 p.m. ET), Cpl. Sherrdean Turley of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police told reporters outside the airport.
[Update 8:28 p.m. ET] The plane, which was coming from Hong Kong, landed safely in Vancouver at 1:35 p.m. PT (4:35 p.m. ET), said Alisa Gloag, a spokeswoman for the Vancouver Airport Authority.
Passengers were deplaned and the aircraft was being towed to another area for inspection, said Gloag, who did not have information about how the threat was reported.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is investigating, Gloag said.
[Posted 8:09 p.m. ET] Two CF-18 Hornets were scrambled from a Canadian military base Saturday to escort a Cathay Pacific Airways flight into Vancouver's airport, according to an official with the North American Aerospace Defense Command.
The action was taken in response to a "potential threat" to the flight, Maj. Holly Apostoliuk of NORAD told CNN.
The plane was escorted to the airport and directed to a restricted area.
No further details were immediately available.
- CNN's Greg Morrison and Nick Valencia contributed to this report.
According to Wikipedia, the CF-18's in western Canada are based in Cold Lake, Alberta but they "rotate out" to Comox.
heard they actually called Wayne G on this.
he advised that his beaver is safe....
Mr Right, I'm sure the Aurora crews from 407 Sqn are most impressed with your awesome knowledge. Given that you live in Comox, you should find out a little more about your military neighbours. You're off base about the CF-18s too.
The Jets are actually from Comox which is a city on Vancouver Island. Why would they scramble jets from Manitoba half way across the country? It would take 2 hours to intercept a jet near Vancouver. Again CNN shows their "great" reporting. Another reason why CBC is way better than CNN news
phew...thanks for clearing that up...jets, eggs, up, down, light, dark, winnipeg, vancouver, minneapolis, los angeles...this is all so &*(&() confusing
No Dam it ,...the Jets left Winnipeg for Phoenix in the 90's, ...and they still suck...
I was working, at the airport, when the plane landed. We were more interested in the CF-18s than the Cathay incident even tho they taped off some of the internation departure gate.
Let's ban Cathy Pacific from our airspace. We finished the Canadian Pacific Railroad 150 years ago!
Hey CNN -you need to read Twitter -we saw these jets at 1:30 PST ( 4:30 EST) escorting a passenger jet over Straits of Georgia & tweeted an "is this for real or training" type tweet-dozens of tweets over past few hours from YVR
I was on this flight, and am still stranded at Vancouver airport waiting for our bags. (Belt 23.) Initially, the security personnel were really hush-hush about what happened, so everyone thought it was a glitch. It was only when it started appearing on the news when we were clued in on what exactly happened. Several fellow passengers and myself were sharing experiences and pictures taken of the fighter jets as well.
Canadian military states that the Wing (Cornox) has four CP-140 Aurora Maritime Patrol Aircraft (407 Squadron ), four CH-149 Cormorants and six CC-115 Buffalo Aircraft (442 Squadron ). A CF-18 detachment last operated from Comox in the late 1980s. Fighters still fly there temporarily from their permanent base at 4 Wing Cold Lake Alta. on training missions or forward deployments as required by NORAD.
yeah Brenda!! finally, someone with some FACTS for a change
Cell phone cameras will save the world from the far right.
I heard the jet had a shipment of swine flu chickens aboard. Apparently headed to Winterpeg!
lib4aclu: did you mean "will save us...from each other"...?