United Airlines flight returns to Sydney

SYDNEY,Austraila
A United Airlines flight has landed safely at Sydney airport after the pilot aborted the Los Angeles-bound flight following a threat.

United Airlines flight 840 carrying 246 passengers and 18 crew was bound for Los Angeles but turned back to Sydney as a precautionary measure about 90 minutes after takeoff, a spokeswoman for Sydney Airport told CNN late Tuesday.

She said the aircraft left Sydney at 2.30 p.m. (00.30 a.m. ET) local time and returned at 5.50 p.m. (3.50 a.m. ET). She said the passengers were now in the process of leaving the plane.

She said there was no attempt to break into the cockpit, despite media reports to that effect.

The pilot had raised a "security issue", she said, but gave no further details other than that the pilot chose to abort the flight and return to Sydney.

The aircraft, Flight UA840, is quarantined at the end of the runway at Sydney International Airport.

Sydney Airport has been shut down for the time being.

An airport official quoted by local television station Sky TV said they believe a letter claiming a bomb was aboard the flight was left at the terminal.

At the weekend, a Europe-based terror group linked to al Qaeda threatened bloodshed on Australian soil.

The Tawhid Islamic group, in a statement posted on an Islamic extremist Web site, said that if Australian military forces did not leave Iraq, "we will shake the earth under your feet as we did in Indonesia".

That is a reference to the October 2002 Bali bombings in which 202 people died, 88 of them Australians.

The group said the battle would be taken to Australia, saying "our arms are long and capable of reaching you".