The flight originated in Boston.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – A flight attendant found a suspicious-looking object in an airliner that originated in Boston as it prepared to land Friday, leading passengers and crew to evacuate using an emergency slide after the jet touched down.

Authorities who removed the object from the plane determined it contained no explosives and posed no danger. Indianapolis International Airport officials offered no details on what it was other than to say it had a string on it.

None of the about 60 passengers and crew was injured during the evacuation, airport spokesman Dennis Rosebrough said.

After American Airlines Flight 1102 landed safely shortly before 2 p.m. EST and was evacuated, the MD-Super 80 taxied to a holding ramp in the middle of the airfield, where it remained for several hours.

The plane was about to complete a flight from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport to Indianapolis when an attendant walking down an aisle noticed a strange object with a string on it, Rosebrough said. The object was on the floor near the rear of the plane.

“As she pulled the string, there was an unknown object which was attached to it,” he said.

Authorities offered no details on whether the object was in the plane’s seating area, or did not say who left it there.

The attendant contacted pilots, and the device was taken to the back of the plane. The pilot requested an emergency landing and landed without incident. Police, fire officials and a hazardous materials team were on the ground waiting for the plane.

Passengers and crew members used an emergency slide to evacuate because stairs brought to the plane did not fit. Passengers were taken on a shuttle to the airport’s international terminal, where they were questioned as a group by investigators from the FBI and Transportation Safety Administration, Rosebrough said.

Within about three hours, all of the passengers were released.

“I think the facts are there was a suspicious object, and in a time of heightened security, both the airline personnel, the airport personnel and TSA and all the responsibile authorities acted appropriately,” Rosebrough said.

Jennifer Marty, a TSA spokeswoman, said bomb-sniffing dogs inspected the plane after it landed and found nothing suspicious.

Mark Mattes, of New Palestine, said officials had offered little information as he waited with his wife and two daughters to welcome his son, Scott, who was a passenger on the evacuated flight and had been traveling from Denver.

American Airlines spokeswoman Mary Frances Fagan said the plane had been scheduled to make a return flight from Indianapolis to Chicago later in the afternoon. The plane’s first flight of the day was from Boston’s Logan International Airport to O’Hare.

AP-ES-12-26-03 1836EST

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