Company got threat before jet fire

An air cargo company received a threat before one of its cargo jets caught fire at San Francisco International Airport, federal officials said Thursday.

ABX Air, a contractor for DHL, received a threat against an unspecified aircraft within a week before the Boeing 767 caught fire about 10 p.m. Saturday, the National Transportation Safety Board said.

The plane's two crew members reported flames just behind the cockpit inside the plane as they were about to start the engines, the safety board said. Both escaped without injury.

The cause of the blaze, which burned a hole through the top of the fuselage, is not known, officials said.

The plane was built in 1987 and carried passengers until 2004, when Israel Aerospace Industries converted it into a cargo jet, officials said.

The safety board did not release details of the threat, and it was not known whether the threat referred to the plane's Israeli connection.

Investigators have interviewed both crew members, and the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder are being analyzed at the safety board's headquarters in Washington.