Report: NYC-bound flight returns to Beijing after threat

An Air China flight headed to Kennedy Airport returned to Beijing Wednesday after receiving a threatening message, then later was cleared to fly, according to a report by Xinhua, the Chinese news agency.

According to the report by Xinhua, Flight CA981 returned to Beijing Capital International Airport for the sake of passenger safety, the carrier said in an announcement via its official microblog account.

An inspection of the plane turned up nothing abnormal and the flight was due to resume, Xinhua said later in an updated story.

The flight, which was scheduled to leave at 1 p.m. Wednesday, local time, for New York, was postponed for an 11:55 p.m. takeoff, the report said.

The airline's website said the flight left at 12:31 a.m. Thursday, local time, and is scheduled to arrive at JFK at 12:45 a.m. Thursday.

Parina Wan, a duty manager for Air China at Kennedy Airport, said the company did not provide any other information after the flight was initially delayed.

"We don't know more," Wan said Wednesday. "The airline in Beijing has not released any more information."