Discovery of blade Ada Younkin of Fayetteville, Ark., said her adrenaline skyrocketed when police and fire trucks surrounded American Airlines Flight 5 in Los Angeles yesterday afternoon.
diverts Hawaii flight
to Los Angeles
An American Air crew finds a
box cutter in a food cart on a
plane departing from DallasBy Rosemarie Bernardo
rbernardo@starbulletin.com"My adrenaline level was 100-fold," said Younkin, who was taking her first trip to Hawaii to celebrate her 60th birthday.
The commotion came after the pilot of the Dallas-to-Honolulu flight made an unscheduled landing after crew members found a box cutter on the plane.
Terrorists who hijacked four airplanes on Sept. 11 apparently used box cutters and other small blades to take control of the jets.
Passengers on yesterday's flight were told only that the plane was landing for cautionary measures.
"'Cautionary measures' doesn't tell you much," Younkin said.
Flight attendants found the box cutter in a food cart about 90 minutes after the plane left Dallas, said American Airlines spokesman John Hotard.
The captain decided to land the plane, carrying 220 people, in Los Angeles so every passenger could be screened again. Younkin said the flight landed at about 12:30 p.m.
"They didn't want to go over the ocean until they found out if there was a problem," Younkin said.
The box cutter was imprinted with the name of the airline's caterer, Sky Chef. Airline officials called the company, and an employee said he inadvertently had left the knife on the cart.
"There's no big deal here," Hotard said. "It's just a guy who forgot his box cutter."
Younkin said passengers aboard the flight were informed that a sharp object was found in the kitchen area.
About 314 hours after arriving in Los Angeles, the plane resumed its trip to Hawaii, said airport spokeswoman Nancy Castles.
Kailua resident R.J. Ritter also was aboard the flight. He said passengers were a bit apprehensive when they saw police and fire trucks at the Los Angeles airport terminal, but there was never any indication of real danger.
"Nobody was panicked," he said.
Though passengers remained calm, security officials evacuated the airport terminal, said Ritter, who was returning home after attending a business meeting in Dallas.
Younkin said, "To me, I was relieved that they were protecting us. But it was scary that we needed that protection."
The flight landed in Honolulu at about 4:20 p.m.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
