An Alaska Airlines flight headed from Oakland to Seattle was grounded Friday afternoon after a bomb threat was called into an airport operator, NBC11 News has learned.
SLIDESHOW: Images From Airport | RAW VIDEO: Alaska Airline Plane Evacuated All 100 passengers on Alaska Airlines flight 355 were evacuated while the aircraft was towed to a secure location and searched by bomb-sniffing dogs.
The 747-400 series aircraft was due to depart for Seattle at 9:21 a.m. and was already at its gate when the threat was called in, said Joanne Holloway, spokeswoman for Oakland International Airport.
The aircraft has since been secured and is being towed back to the gate, Holloway said.
Chopper11 showed an Alaska Airlines plane on the tarmac with luggage being loaded back on to the plane at 11 a.m.
A woman called NBC11 News and said that her fiancé was on the plane. She said he told her when his plane was evacuated, he was not allowed to bring any of his belongings from the plane. He said the passengers were taken back into the airport and placed inside a room.
Chopper11 showed the Alaska Airlines plane being towed back to a gate at 11:20 a.m.
Holloway said the passengers were given refreshments until each person was cleared individually.
The threat did not affect any other airport operations, no other flights experienced delays and it did not interrupted security lines, Holloway said.
Earlier Friday morning, there was an unrelated incident at the airport.
Airport officials said a fire alarm went off a little after 9 a.m. and they began to evacuate the airport, but soon realized it was a false alarm and they quickly canceled the evacuation.
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