There was a real buzz tonight at New York JFK. A JetBlue flight, 1623 to Los Angeles, went silent. Media picked this up, and there was little to no information about what was happening. Speculation abounded, fearing the worst.
RT @JoshEiniger7: #BREAKING: @PANYNJ police surrounding @jetblue flight at #JFK in some kind of security incident. #abc7ny #JetBlue #papd pic.twitter.com/5ZGc0QeFG3
— Richard Louis (@Citywide45) June 27, 2018
Law enforcement surrounded the aircraft and then boarded.
#BREAKING New video shows cops entering the #Jetblue plane at #JFK. According to its tail number, appears to be flight 1623 to #LAX, departed gate just before 7:30 but never left ground. #B61623 #abc7ny #PAPD #JFK pic.twitter.com/R7w4sf2XYb
— Josh Einiger (@JoshEiniger7) June 27, 2018
A passenger reported 10 officers boarded.
I am on a Jet Blue flight at JFK that lost its communications. Created a security crisis. 10 heavily armed cops boarded plane and just left. After 1.5 hours on runway being towed back to gate. Wow.
— Tony Schwartz (@tonyschwartz) June 27, 2018
When the cops say putemup on Jet Blue Flight at JFK pic.twitter.com/AXRBd96FeO
— Steve Grasha (@RiversideWeekly) June 27, 2018
And it turns out that all it was was communications equipment failure.
#FAA issues statement after police activity at #JFK: “JetBlue 1623, an Airbus A320, experienced a radio equipment problem while taxing for departure at John F. Kennedy International Airport tonight at 8 p.m. The crew requested to return to the ramp. The FAA will investigate.”
— Jodi Goldberg (@JodiGFox5NY) June 27, 2018
did nobody have a MF cell phone? what a ridiculous state of affairs … i’d sue jet blue and port authority police (and i’m hardly a litigious person)
What an idiotic comment. Sue? LOL
Yes because the smart thing to do when heavily armed police enter your plane with weapons in a potential hijack situation and orders you to put your hands up is to grab your phone and point it in their direction. Some real einsteins on that flight apparently.
@justin sue the police for responding when a hijack had been signaled earlier? GTFOH
I would hire a top NY lawyer like Michael Cohen to handle this.
Presumably they squarked 7500 instead of 7600. The pilots need to remember the rhyme for the emergency transponder codes, which are 7500 (hijack), 7600 (comms failure) and 7700 (mayday-type emergency):
“75, being taken alive;
“76, need a radio fix;
77, going to heaven”