Air Marshals Intervene in Incident on Plane

Air Marshals Intervene in Incident on Plane
By ANAHAD O’CONNOR
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: April 7, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/08/us/08flight.html?th&emc=th


Federal officials were investigating an incident aboard a Washington-to-Denver flight on Wednesday involving a passenger who caused a disturbance.

ABC News reported that the passenger had been identified by the authorities as a diplomat in the Qatar Embassy in Washington.

A federal official said that the man went to the bathroom to smoke a cigarette, and was confronted by air marshals on board the plane. The passenger understood he had diplomatic immunity, and made sarcastic comments that the marshals took as a threat, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“The situation here is not like the shoe bomber,” the official said, alluding to the December 2001 incident in which Richard C. Reid, a self-admitted member of Al Qaeda, had attempted to detonate explosives hidden in his shoes on a trans-Atlantic flight.

Several law enforcement officials said late Wednesday that no bomb had been found on Wednesday’s flight. Still, the passenger was being questioned by the F.B.I., as were fellow passengers, and the investigation was continuing, they said.

Two F-16 fighters from Buckley Air Force Base, in Colorado, were scrambled to intercept the plane, the authorities said. They escorted it for the last five minutes of its flight, and it landed safely in Denver.

Aircraft around the United States were alerted about the incident, a federal official said.

The Transportation Security Administration released a statement about the incident.

“TSA is monitoring an incident on board United Airlines flight 663 from DCA to DEN after receiving initial reports that a Federal Air Marshal responded to a passenger possibly causing a disturbance on board this aircraft,” the agency said in a statement.

The plane took off from Ronald Reagan National Airport at 5:19 p.m. Eastern time and landed in Denver at 6:54 p.m. Mountain time.

United released a statement saying it had alerted federal authorities to the incident.

“Following an incident involving a passenger, the crew of United flight 663 asked that the plane be met by law enforcement officials after landing safely at DIA at 7 p.m. local time,” the statement said. “We are cooperating fully with the investigation. The Boeing 757 had 157 passengers and six crew.”

The incident comes just four months after a Nigerian man with terrorist ties sneaked an explosive onto a trans-Atlantic flight and tried to ignite it as the plane prepared to land in Detroit.

Matthew L. Wald and Charlie Savage contributed reporting.