UPS Plane Searched For Bomb

Members of Phoenix's bomb squad were unloading a grounded UPS cargo plane by hand early Wednesday after the company received two threatening phone calls, including one mentioning a bomb in the shipment.

The 757 made an emergency landing at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on Tuesday night following the calls.

Once the plane landed and taxied to an isolated area of the airfield, the crew of the plane evacuated by climbing out of the front windows of the plane and climbing down on ropes.

Once secure, emergency personnel closed in.

"We're going very slowly. We can't use robotics or anything of that nature. You have to use humans," said Phoenix police Lt. Rick Gehlbach.

The plane had taken off from Los Angeles and was traveling to Louisville, Ky., with two crew members and a third UPS employee aboard, said Mark Giuffre, public relations manager for UPS Airlines in Louisville, Ky.

Late Tuesday, someone called the UPS 24-hour call center "saying that there was a dangerous package on board," Giuffre said. The caller provided a tracking number that helped officials locate the package and the plane it was on.

"Then a few minutes later, we received another call. The anonymous caller again gave the same tracking number. This time he said it was a bomb," Giuffre said. A decision was made to land the plane.

CBS News Radio reports the two phone calls originated from the Los Angeles area.

In addition to Phoenix police and fire departments, members of the FBI and the Arizona Department of Public Safety responded to the incident, Gehlbach said. Bomb-sniffing dogs and their trainers also were at the scene.

Jeanine L'Ecuyer, Sky Harbor spokeswoman, said passenger flights and operations were unaffected at the airport.

L'Ecuyer said that police had waited until after 10:30 p.m. EDT — the time that the plane would have arrived in Louisville — to conduct a search. "It was just being prudent in the event that it was a timed device," L'Ecuyer said.