Canadian fighters escort bomb-threat jet

A bomb threat against a Virgin Airlines jumbo jet with 314 people aboard caused four Canadian jet fighters to escort the flight to an unscheduled landing yesterday in Newfoundland.

Captain John Pulchny of the Department of National Defence said the four F-18s were sent up by the North American Aerospace Defence Command in the United States under a heightened state of security after last week’s terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.