An Amazon air cargo plane bound for Southern California turned back toward Honolulu on Monday morning after its pilot declared an emergency, setting off a scramble of first responders at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport before the jet was cleared of any explosives. The aircraft eventually landed around 8 a.m., was escorted for additional screening, and released once authorities determined it was safe.
A Bomb Threat Triggers the Emergency Call
Officials told Hawaii News Now that a bomb threat was behind the pilot's decision to declare an emergency shortly before landing at the Honolulu airport. First responders were dispatched ahead of time to await the aircraft's arrival, according to the station's report.
A dispatch recording tied to the response, provided by CrimeRadar, captured the urgency of the moment. “All emergency responders, rally point will be at gate Charlie Nine. This is for the aircraft coming in with the bomb threat,” a voice on the recording said, according to the same account. The gate designation gave crews a fixed location to stage before the plane touched down.
Inspection, Relocation, and Release
Once the aircraft arrived, authorities searched it and found no explosives, the station's report noted. From there, the plane was taken to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam for additional screening. The plane was released after clearing those screening procedures, per the same account.
Flight-tracking details from The Aviation Hub fill in the timeline of the flight itself. The Boeing 767 freighter, registered N379AZ and operating as Air Transport International flight 8C3369, had taken off from Daniel K. Inouye International Airport at 3:32 a.m. local time, headed for Ontario, California. It was flying under the Amazon Prime Air banner, according to the outlet.
The Freighter Reversed Course About Two Hours After Takeoff
The freighter reversed course at about 5:40 a.m., roughly two hours after its 3:32 a.m. departure, The Aviation Hub reported. It did not begin transmitting squawk 7700 — the universal emergency code used by pilots to alert air traffic control — until shortly after 7 a.m. local time. By then, the plane had already been airborne for hours over the Pacific Ocean.
It touched back down in Honolulu at approximately 8:13 a.m. local time, after four hours and 40 minutes in the air, according to the outlet's tracking data. The Aviation Hub reported that the cause of the emergency remained unconfirmed at the time of its publication, a detail that stands alongside officials' attribution of the incident to a bomb threat as described to Hawaii News Now.
Aviation records from Flexport's flight tracker confirm that flight 8C3369, also identified as ATN3369, is a regularly operated Air Transport International route between Honolulu International Airport and Ontario International Airport, flown with the same Boeing 767 freighter. Separate aircraft data from Flightradar24 identifies N379AZ specifically as a Boeing 767-323(ER)(BDSF), the converted freighter model used on the run.
