TSA: 2 passengers detained after flight to Phoenix

TSA: 2 passengers detained after flight to Phoenix

Posted 1h 24m ago

PHOENIX (AP) — Authorities say they've detained two men thought to have been acting suspicious aboard a flight bound for Phoenix.

A Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman says passengers aboard U.S. Airways Flight 192 from Orlando Saturday night reported that two men were acting strangely.

The flight crew called for law enforcement and TSA officers to meet them when the plane landed at Phoenix's at a Sky Harbor International Airport at about 8 p.m. Saturday. Authorities say the two men were met by Phoenix police and TSA officials gate and later interviewed by FBI agents.

Police say nothing dangerous was found during a search of the plane and passengers' luggage.

TSA officials didn't immediately know the names, ages or hometowns of the two detained men.

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/ ... ment_N.htm

wo passengers detained at Sky Harbor released without charges

by Nathan Gonzalez -
Dec. 27, 2009 04:30 PM
The Arizona Republic .

Phoenix and federal authorities detained two Middle Eastern men accused by a passenger of acting suspiciously aboard a Phoenix-bound plane Saturday evening.

An investigation by the FBI found no evidence of a terrorist threat and the men were later released without charges.

A passenger aboard U.S. Airways Flight 192 from Orlando, Fla. to Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport reported that two men were acting strangely, said Suzanne Trevino, a Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman.

"The passengers alerted the flight crew and they called for law enforcement and TSA officers to meet them when the plane arrived," Trevino said.

Once the plane arrived for its scheduled stop about 8 p.m., the two men were met by Phoenix police, TSA and FBI officials, said Special Agent Manuel Johnson, a FBI spokesman.

The passenger told authorities the two men, described as being Middle Eastern, were speaking "loudly" in their native language.

The passenger then saw a suicide bomber on the DVD version of the movie "The Kingdom," and one of the men reportedly got up to use the lavatory when the fasten-seatbelt sign was lit.

"The totality of those three occurrences led this passenger to believe this was suspicious," Johnson said.

The men were cooperative with the FBI when questioned, then were later released to catch another flight to their final destination in California. Neither was charged.

The incident delayed the inbound flight from Orlando for about an hour as authorities emptied the plane, searched luggage and swept the plane with police K-9s to ensure nothing dangerous was left aboard. Authorities found nothing.

Airports nationwide have beefed up security since Christmas Day, when a Nigerian man attempted to blow up Northwest Flight 253 in Detroit. Federal authorities allege the device Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, tried to detonate malfunctioned. He suffered significant burns to his legs.

"We definitely want the public to be vigilant to report information, but we don't agree with racial profiling," Johnson said. "What is suspicious to one person could mean something else to another."

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... s1228.html

RELATED?

Disruptive Passenger Escorted Off Plane In Florida

http://www.alipac.us/ftopicp-998297.html#998297