NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Authorities said a phoned-in threat claiming explosives were on board a Southwest Airlines plane was a false alarm.
All passengers, the flight crew and luggage were evacuated from flight 1684, which was on its way to Nashville from Oakland, Calif.
``The plan has been cleared and passengers have been released,'' said airport spokeswoman, Lynn Lowrance. ``The FBI is continuing to investigate.''
The threat was phoned in shortly before the plane was scheduled to land at 4 p.m. CST. Officials says they're unsure if the caller was a man or woman.
Airport authorities and the FBI were searching the aircraft with dogs, Lowrance said. The plane had 121 passengers and a crew of five, all were being held in an isolated section of the airport for screening as part of the emergency procedure.
``Authorities found nothing,'' said Beth Harbin, spokeswoman for Southwest Airlines. ``There's certain nature of calls that we look into and this is one of them. It's pretty rare, but that's why we have these procedures in place to check it out.''
The plan is continuing on its scheduled course heading to Baltimore, she said.
In May, another plane in Nashville was evacuated after an American Airlines flight attendant created a bomb hoax on a flight headed to Boston from Dallas-Fort Worth.
In that case, Gay Wilson is charged with unlawful interference with a flight crew, communicating false information that endangered the safety of an aircraft in flight, and maliciously conveying false information.
