WORLD : Bomb Claim Turns Jet Around

TOKYO — A San Francisco-bound United Airlines flight returned safely to Tokyo early today after a passenger brandished an inflated airsickness bag that he said contained a bomb, officials said. Authorities described the incident as a prank and said there were no injuries.

Narita airport police took into custody Hiromu Kato, 48, a Japanese passenger from Osaka.

Police sources said Kato, one of the 296 passengers on board United Flight 58, had inflated a plastic airsickness bag two hours into the flight and threatened a cabin attendant.

Earlier, United spokesman Sarah Dornacker in Chicago had said the incident was “unequivocally not a hijack” but “a security-related matter” that forced the return of Flight 58, which had a crew of 20.