JetBlue Pilot Mistakenly Sends Hijack Alarm After Communication Failure, Causes Security Scare

While a JetBlue flight was taxing on the tarmac at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City on Tuesday evening, on its way to depart for Los Angeles, the pilots lost contact with the air traffic control tower, sparking a security scare and causing law enforcement agents to swarm into the plane.

The communication radio of JetBlue Flight 1623 failed around 8 p.m. EDT. Five minutes after the crew lost contact with the control tower, one of the pilots mistakenly entered a hijack alert, causing the Port Authority Police Emergency Services to dispatch a team of armed security to board the plane.

"There was a false alarm sent to tower as a result of a radio communications failure. Aircraft was inspected and cleared with no security threat," Port Authority spokeswoman Lenis Rodrigues said Tuesday night.

A video from the tarmac showed at least a dozen emergency vehicles surrounding the plane:

According to New York Daily News, the pilot held up a piece of paper with his mobile number written on it at one point, so that air control officials could get in touch with the crew members to find out what was happening in the flight. The tower was finally able to re-establish contact with the flight crew around 8:15 p.m. EDT, via alternate communication channels.

A JetBlue Official added: "While communication was reestablished via alternate channels, authorities responded in an abundance of caution. The aircraft was cleared and returned to the gate for inspection.”

Tony Schwartz, the co-author of “Trump: Art Of The Deal” was one of the passengers aboard the JetBlue flight when the incident happened.

“I am on a Jet Blue flight at JFK that lost its communications. Created a security crisis. 10 heavily armed cops boarded plane and just left. After 1.5 hours on runway being towed back to gate. Wow,” he tweeted.

Lifestyle blogger and the founder/CEO of Life Unfiltered with Alexa, who was also on the plane, posted photos from inside the cabin, where all the passengers appear to have their hands up as security officials come into the plane to check out the situation. Although she tagged Delta Airlines in the tweet, she later clarified in another tweet that she actually meant to tag JetBlue.

All the passengers from the plane were transferred to a different aircraft as it returned to the gate for further inspection. The Federal Aviation Administration was investigating the incident.

JetBlue spokeswoman Paula Acevedo issued a statement regarding the incident but didn't specify what caused the communications problem on Tuesday.

“Shortly before departure, Flight 1623 from New York JFK to Los Angeles experienced a radio issue impacting the crew’s ability to communicate and a false alarm was sent to JFK tower,” she said in a written statement. “While communication was reestablished via alternate channels, authorities responded in an abundance of caution. The aircraft was cleared and returned to the gate for inspection.”