Hong Kong plane lands safely at Newark airport after poison threat

The man, who was taken off the plane under a heavy police presence following landing, stood up during the flight to make the claim but there was no indication that any passengers aboard United Airlines Flight 116 were actually poisoned, an FBI spokesman said.

After the passenger caused a disruption, procedures were followed and the flight continued on as scheduled with 238 passengers aboard to Newark, just outside New York City, the airline said.

A large police contingent greeted the flight’s arrival, a passenger from another plane said.

Merrill Amos, a graduate student on her way back to San Francisco after attending a wedding in upstate New York, said dozens of police vehicles surround the plane after it stopped on the tarmac a few hundred yards short of the terminal. Amos said she saw a number of passengers walk down a portable staircase and get into a waiting ambulance.

Amos said she saw authorities “dragging” a man she assumed was the passenger in question down the stairs and into a white SUV.

“He wasn’t passed-out limp, but he looked very sluggish,” Amos said.