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Suspicious Packages Seized at Philly and Newark Airports

Bomb squads investigating UPS cargo flights that landed in Philly and Newark, N.J.

By TERESA MASTERSON

Updated 11:42 AM EDT, Fri, Oct 29, 2010

Two planes at Philadelphia International Airport and one plane at Newark Liberty Airport with "questionable shipments" are being investigated by the FBI, bomb squads and local police Friday morning, United Parcel Service and TSA officials say.

All three planes with suspicious packages are UPS planes.

In addition to these three flights, there was a cargo flight from Yemen to Chicago that was stopped in London because a toner cartridge was found converted into an exposive device, CNN reports.

Two occupants of one of the UPS planes at Philadelphia International Airport were removed from the plane on the tarmac and a bomb squad began investigating suspicious packages from the flight beginning at about 9:20 a.m. Friday.

Sources tell NBC Philadelphia that one of the UPS flights that landed in Philadelphia came from Paris.

Airport spokeswoman Victoria Lupica says Philadelphia police and other agencies are with the planes at a remote part of the airport. Lupica says she believes the flights are cargo planes, and video from the airport shows emergency vehicles around a UPS jet.

According to a statement from the TSA, they are "aware of and monitoring reports of potentially suspicious items onboard cargo flights that landed safely at Newark Liberty and Philadelphia International airports. Out of an abundance of caution the planes were moved to a remote location where they are being met by law enforcement officials and swept."

A source told NBC New York that a ground search of the ramp at Newark Liberty is underway after the suspicious packages were removed from the plane.

No inbound or outbound flights have been affected.

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