Saturday October 13, 8:48 am Eastern Time

Box-cutters found on Sept. 11 plane -Air Canada

TORONTO, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Police are investigating circumstances surrounding a Sept. 11 flight from Toronto to New York after box-cutter knives were found aboard the airliner, which never left the ground that day, an airline spokeswoman said on Saturday.

Box-cutters and knives were the weapons used by hijackers who took control of four U.S. airliners on Sept. 11 and smashed them into landmarks in New York and Washington and a Pennsylvania field, killing nearly 5,400 people.

Air Canada (Toronto:AC.TO - news) spokeswoman Laura Cooke said the knives were found on Sept. 14 by a passenger on an Air Canada flight heading for Calgary.

The plane had initially been scheduled to fly to New York on Sept. 11, leaving Toronto's Pearson International Airport at 9 a.m. It never took off because the United States closed its airspace to civilian traffic after the attacks in New York and Washington.

``The matter is being looked at by the authorities,'' Cooke said. She declined to give details about the passengers.

The Globe and Mail national newspaper quoted a passenger on the original Sept. 11 flight as saying that he had been questioned by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

``I asked them why they were asking questions, and they told me box-cutters were found under some of the seats,'' the paper quoted the passenger as saying.

``It is pretty scary to know that I was on a flight to New York on Sept. 11 and box-cutters were under some seats.''

The airliners used in the hijack attacks took off from Boston, New York and Washington.

-- Anonymous, October 13, 2001