U.S. Fighter Planes Escort Emirates Airliner To JFK Airport

Update at 4:15 p.m. ET: The United Arab Emirates flight landed safely at New York's JFK Airport after being escorted by two fighter jets in the United States.

The AP reports quotes John Cornelia, a spokesman for U.S. North American Aerospace Defense Command, as saying that the U.S. fighters took over the duty of escorting the airliner from a Canadian fighter that had flown with it to the U.S. border.

Update at 3:36 p.m. ET: The plane has now landed safely at JFK Airport.

Our original post: "U.S. Fighter Planes Escort Emirates Airliner To JFK Airport"

A U.S. official says that two military fighter jets escorted an airliner from the Canadian border to New York, according to the AP. The plane, reportedly United Arab Emirates flight 201 from Dubai, is bound for New York City's John F. Kennedy Airport.

After more than in hour in delays, UAE Flight 201 was scheduled to land at 3:44, according to an online flight tracking service.

The FBI has reportedly told CNN that the military escort of two F-16s are escorting the passenger jet "only because there is cargo from Yemen on the flight."

The fighter escort may be related to the search earlier Friday of several UPS cargo planes after suspicious packages were found to have been sent from an address in Yemen. Those searches followed the discovery Thursday night of suspicious packages in London and Dubai.