Airline Tells of Bomb Threat to Paris Flight, Lets Passengers Cancel

Northwest Airlines took the unusual step Thursday of offering to cancel reservations on one of its international flights because of a bomb warning.

Reservations clerks were informing callers of a “security threat” made against Saturday’s Flight 51 from Paris to Detroit. The Federal Aviation Administration said it knew about the telephoned threat and was making sure that airport security is increased in Paris.

The airline said that the flight would go as scheduled, but it was giving customers the option of making other travel arrangements.

“This is an unusual threat in the fact that it’s very specific, directed at a specific flight on a particular day, and that is what adds to the precautions that we’re taking surrounding it,” Northwest spokesman Douglas Miller said in St. Paul, Minn.

He said that someone telephoned the airline and warned that a bomb would be aboard the flight and that Northwest had informed the FAA, FBI, CIA and foreign agencies. He would not say when or where the threat was received and would give no other details.

Security precautions were being stepped up on all Northwest flights out of Paris, Miller said.

“We intend to fly the plane,” he said. “We feel that we have all the precautions and security measures in place to operate the plane safely.”

Miller said that the airline had not decided whether to notify passengers individually before show-up time for the flight. A printed advisory about the bomb threat will be handed to those who go to the airport for departure on Saturday, he said.

“They can change their itineraries without penalty,” he said. Airlines usually prohibit reservation changes or charge extra for them.

FAA spokesman John Leyden said that officials were “working with Northwest and with the French authorities to ensure there is extra security on the flight.”

Leyden said the bomb threat came in an anonymous telephone call and was one of about 300 that U.S. carriers receive each year.

Survivors of those killed when Pan Am Flight 103 blew up over Scotland on Dec. 21, 1988, have been critical of airlines and the FAA for not warning passengers of threats made against flights on that route.