Bomb Threat Grounds Jetliner

ROMULUS, Mich. — A Northwest Airlines jet bound for Los Angeles returned today to Detroit Metropolitan Airport after the pilot reported a bomb threat, a spokeswoman for the Wayne County Sheriff’s Department said.

The plane was airborne about half an hour and then returned at 10:25 a.m. after the pilot informed the airport’s control tower of the threat, Nancy Mouradian of the Sheriff’s Department’s airport division said. She said the 255 people aboard the DC-10 got off the plane and it was moved to an inactive runway, where explosive-sniffing dogs and the Sheriff’s Department bomb squad searched it. The plane took off for Los Angeles about three hours later, the airline said.