Plane detained for questioning

2004-01-01 16:32

Washington - With US authorities taking an increasingly aggressive security stance on international flights headed for the United States, a British Airways jet was isolated shortly after it landed at Washington Dulles International Airport and some of its 247 passengers questioned.

Homeland Security spokespeson Rachel Sunbarger said intelligence led the agencies to detain the flight on Wednesday night, but an FBI official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press the incident did not involve terrorism.

Transportation Security Administration spokesperson Jennifer Marty said passengers aboard Flight 223 from London's Heathrow Airport to Dulles were questioned aboard the plane, which landed at 19:06 EST. (12:06 GMT) Officials began allowing passengers off the plane about an hour and a half later.

Sunbarger said the baggage on board the flight underwent additional screening.

The plane was kept a few hundred metres from the terminal during the questioning.

Passenger David Litwick told WJLA-TV in Washington that he and his wife were not questioned, but at least one other passenger was. Litwick said four FBI agents spoke to a woman who appeared to be from the Middle East, repeatedly asking her why she was not travelling with her husband.

Earlier this week, a US-bound flight from Mexico reversed course in mid-air because of concerns about improper screening of passengers and another Mexican flight was reported delayed on New Year's Eve because of US security concerns.

A Homeland Security official, asking not to be identified, said Mexican authorities made the decision to turn the first plane around earlier this week after the United States informed them it did not feel the airline had taken adequate security measures.

Agustine Gutierrez Canet, Mexico's presidential spokesperson, told the Los Angeles Times that US officials told Aeromexico that for security reasons, Flight 490 would be denied landing rights in Los Angeles on Wednesday night. But he said the passengers were allowed to leave on a later flight.

"Homeland Security should give an explanation why it denied landing rights and then accepted the same passengers on another flight to Los Angeles," Gutierrez Canet told the paper.

Homeland Security officials could not be reached after news of the delayed Los Angeles flight surfaced early on Thursday.

The New York Times reported that the United States had reached an agreement with a French delegation under which the French will turn over passenger lists for any at-risk flight at least one hour before takeoff, rather than waiting until the flight is in the air, as is now done.

Several Air France flights between Paris and Los Angeles were cancelled on December 24 because of terrorism concerns.

- AP