PHILADELPHIA -- A flight scheduled to take off from Philadelphia on Tuesday morning was delayed for hours over concern a banned cell phone had been brought on board.
After an "unconfirmed report" that a Samsung Galaxy Note7 was on the Miami-bound American Airlines flight, the captain required passengers to be re-screened and the flight to be checked "out of an abundance of caution," said American Airlines spokeswoman Victoria Lupica.
"There was no Samsung 7," Lupica said. "The search was negative."
Federal officials banned the Samsung Galaxy Note7 from all U.S. flights in October because of safety risks and Samsung Electronics has stopped making the device, which had a defect that caused some of the phones to catch fire.
Lupica said she did not know who reported the Samsung phone may be on board the flight but said the concern stemmed from a hotspot named after the banned phone. She said the captain made the determination to re-screen the passengers.
The flight from Philadelphia International Airport was scheduled to depart at 9:55 a.m. on Tuesday morning. It took off around 1:30 p.m., according to the flight tracking website, Flight Aware.
Erin O'Neill may be reached at eoneill@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @LedgerErin. Find NJ.com on Facebook.