Wires sheathed in a plastic tube found aboard a Madrid-bound Delta flight might have been a bomb component, law enforcement sources said today.
Though no actual bomb was discovered, authorities are still investigating the incident, the sources said. It’s still unclear that any crime occurred.
“It’s a possibility it could have been the beginnings of something,” said one law enforcement source, adding that the wires could have been a sign that “something was assembled and disrupted.”
About an hour into its trans-Atlantic trip on Thursday evening, someone on Flight 126 found the two wires in one of the Boeing 767’s lavatories.
Though the wires were not connected to anything, sources said today they might have been intended to be part of an explosive device — maybe a connection between bomb parts, such as a battery and an explosive.
After the wires were discovered, the pilots declared an emergency and asked to return directly to Kennedy Airport.
“We’ve got possible explosives on board … We’ve been investigating,” a pilot told Boston FAA controllers, noting that there were “federal specialists with us on board.”
After the plane landed at Kennedy, law enforcement questioned a man and a woman on the flight.
One was “an American of Pakistani descent” who was in the lavatory just before the wires were discovered, said a source. The other was a woman who appeared to have suffered a medical emergency as the wire was discovered.
Radio chatter indicated that officials believed there was a terrorist “team” aboard the flight, and that the woman may have been faking an illness to draw attention away from the bomb makers.
The man and woman were questioned, but later released. No one was arrested and the flight took off again at 4 a.m.