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'Potential Security Incident' Delays JetBlue Flight At Charlotte Airport

Updated 2:11 p.m.

A JetBlue flight from Charlotte to New York was delayed Sunday morning due to what Charlotte-Douglas International Airport describes as a "potential security threat." 

An emailed statement from JetBlue's Corporate Communications office said flight 218 was delayed "for additional security screenings out of an abundance of caution." JetBlue says the Embraer E190 aircraft had been scheduled to depart Charlotte at 9:43 a.m. Sunday for New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. 

In an email, the airport's media relations department said "all of the Airport's partners worked together to clear the incident."

WSOC-TV reported that dozens of people were escorted from the plane and first responders swarmed the aircraft.  WSOC also reported that a man who said he was a passenger on the plane told the television station that the pilot told passengers there had been a bomb threat. 

Neither JetBlue nor Charlotte-Douglas airport confirmed the nature of the incident. The airport directed further inquiries to JetBlue, and the airline directed further inquiries to local law enforcment.  A spokesman for CMPD confirmed that the department responded to assist the Charlotte Fire Department at the airport, but provided no other details. 

Mark Rumsey grew up in Kansas and got his first radio job at age 17 in the town of Abilene, where he announced easy-listening music played from vinyl record albums.