US Airline Threats - Jan 2015

In the last 10 days, numerous security alerts have been declared concerning US airlines.  The number of security alerts in such a short period is unusual.  The FBI is investigating.

• Sat Jan 17 - A Delta flight, DL1803, from Atlanta International Airport, GE to Raleigh-Durham International Airport, NC was searched on arrival due to a bomb-threat issued on Twitter. Nothing was found.
• Mon Jan 19 - Following a telephoned bomb-threat (saying a pipe-bomb was on board Delta flight DL468) two aircraft were searched at JFK International Airport, NY.  Delta had two flights (using different aircraft) identified as DL468.  The call was received while DL468 from San Francisco, CA to JFK was en-route.  It was searched on arrival at JFK and nothing was found.  DL468 from JFK to Tel Aviv, Israel had boarding halted and was searched.  Again nothing was found.
• Sat Jan 24 - Following bomb-threats posted on Twitter, two aircraft were escorted by South Carolina National Guard F-16s to their destination of Hartfield-Jackson International Airport, Atlanta, GE.  One was a Delta flight, DL1156, from Portland, OR and the second was a SouthWest Airlines flight, SWA2492, from Milwaukee, WI.  Both were searched and nothing was found.  The Twitter account was identified as @KingZortic.  During the exchange on Twitter the poster stated he had done it "for Lulz" (personal comic satisfaction).
• Sun Jan 25 - Following a bomb-threat posted on Twitter, two aircraft were searched on arrival at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, WA.  Jet Blue 1006 was from Long Beach, CA.  The SkyWest flight was from Phoenix, AZ.  Nothing was found.
• Sun Jan 25 - Following a bomb-threat posted on Twitter, a Delta flight, DL1061, from Los Angeles, CA to Orlando, FL was diverted to Dallas TX and searched.  Nothing was found and the flight continued to Orlando.  The Twitter account was identified as Junaid Hussain @AllahAkhbar911 and claimed allegiance to ISIS.

Last month, Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsular (AQAP) posted Issue 13 of their English-language Inspire magazine.  It featured an aircraft on the cover and provided advice on how to build an improvised-explosive device (IED) to attack an aircraft.  It identified US airlines as indirect economic targets.  

While much more information is required to make an initial assessment, from the hypotheses available, the incidents, despite the inconvenience, have not created a climate of fear among the US travelling public.