Delta flight leaves JFK after explosives scare

(CBS/AP) NEW YORK - Passengers in New York City have resumed their flight to Madrid hours after authorities determined that strange wiring found in the plane's bathroom was not an explosive device.

Delta Flight 126 had left the gate at John F. Kennedy International Airport around 8 p.m. Thursday, but returned about an hour later after a passenger reported finding the wires.

Law enforcement sources described the device as two pieces of plastic attached by wires and possibly a straw, CBS New York station WCBS-TV reports.

Madrid-bound flight from JFK searched, cleared

A U.S. Marshal was onboard the plane, and the New York Police Department bomb squad and FBI met the flight as a swarm of law enforcement vehicles crowded the plane and the 206 passengers were evacuated.

The wires were determined to be non-explosive but apparently didn't belong to the plane, said Paul Browne, chief spokesman for the NYPD. Investigators briefly questioned two passengers, a woman who reported having difficulty breathing at the time the wires were discovered, and a man who apparently had been the last to use the bathroom. Officials were concerned the woman may have been creating some sort of diversion, but that was determined not to be the case. The male passenger denied having anything to do with the wires. Both passengers were released.

The FBI has the device in their possession and want to know what it is, what it was designed for and whether it has any kind of a role in a larger terror plot, WCBS-TV reports.

The Transportation Security Administration said the plane taxied to a remote location and passengers were escorted off. "The aircraft was searched with negative results," the TSA said in a statement.

Delta spokeswoman Sarah M. Lora said in a statement that the flight was returned to JFK "out of an abundance of caution" and that "the flight landed safely."

Flight 126 departed for Madrid at 3:43 a.m. Friday, Lora said.

In May, a US Airways jet traveling from Paris to North Carolina was diverted to Maine after a French passenger handed a note to a flight attendant mentioning that she had a surgically implanted device, raising fears of a terror scenario that security officials had warned about. After landing, the plane taxied to a remote part of the airport where law enforcement officials removed the passenger.