An airline pilot in the US lost his temper with the control tower at New York’s JFK Airport after he was forced to delay his plane after landing with no reason provided as to why.

The American Airlines plane was told to taxi to a remote area of the airport and hold off unloading passengers before being surrounded by police vehicles, according to ninemsn.

What the pilot wasn’t told was that a prank caller tipped off authorities of possible terrorists hiding in the plane’s wheel well in an attempt to hijack the plane.

The recording of the pilot losing his temper heard him state, "I'm the captain of this airliner and I need information pronto, we’re surrounded by emergency vehicles, there's a reason for this”.

When the pilot said, "somebody's got to give us the reason or we're going to evacuate the aircraft, you got 60 seconds”, the control tower told the pilot to call another number for information.

Demanding the information immediately, the pilot was eventually told what the authorities knew about the threat.