Man arrested at JFK airport posing as pilot

A man carrying a false pilot's identification has been arrested at New York's John F Kennedy International Airport.

The man attempted to get past security posing as a pilot. It is being reported that he was thought to be of Iranian descent.

In addition, five or six people, some of them Arab nationals and at least one carrying a knife, were also detained at the city's airports.

The man arrested at JFK had tried to fly to California on Tuesday morning and was carrying a certificate from a Florida flight training school.

The arrests prompted the closure of all three of New York's airports - Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark, New Jersey - just hours after air carriers were allowed to return to the sky for the first time since Tuesday's terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

The man who was arrested had been scheduled for a flight on Tuesday bound for Los Angeles, but it was cancelled after the terrorist attack began on the World Trade Centre.

On Thursday, he tried to board American Airlines Flight 299 bound for San Jose.

Suspicious ticket counter staff alerted a supervisor who notified Port Authority police.

Authorities tracked the man through security checks, including metal detectors, and stopped him at the gate.

A short time later, three more men arrived at Kennedy and boarded American Airlines Flight 133 to Los Angeles, and were arrested onboard.