DENVER: Military jets scrambled to intercept a San Francisco-bound jetliner reporting a problem aboard — one of two commercial airplanes diverted because of disruptive passengers.
In addition, police at London’s Heathrow Airport arrested three passengers after removing them from a jetliner bound for Dubai. Police said the three men allegedly made a bomb threat on an Emirates airline passenger jet Friday night as it was about to take off. A search of the plane found nothing suspicious.
The other passengers were taken off the plane and put up in a hotel overnight.
Friday’s passenger plane disruptions came amid heightened concern over airline security following an alleged Christmas Day attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines plane.
Two F-16s were launched at 11:44 a.m. to catch up with AirTran Airways Flight 39 from Atlanta to San Francisco after a report that an intoxicated passenger had locked himself in a bathroom, the Colorado-based North American Aerospace Defense Command said.
The jets arrived over Colorado Springs Airport as the captain — who AirTran said had decided to divert the plane — landed there around noon, NORAD spokeswoman Stacey Knott said.
Colorado Springs police detained the passenger, who allegedly refused to follow flight crew instructions to take his seat before locking himself in a lavatory. Canine teams searched the airplane, and the flight was cleared to continue to San Francisco.
Muhammad Abu Tahir, 46, of Virginia, was being held at the El Paso County jail, the FBI said. Federal charges for interference with a flight crew were expected to be filed Monday. His hometown was not immediately available.
Also Friday, a Hawaii-bound flight had to change course and land in Los Angeles after a man was accused of harassing a woman. The man was removed from the jet that departed Las Vegas early Friday.
The man was interviewed and released after the woman declined to press charges, Los Angeles airport police Sgt. Jim Holcomb said. The exact nature of the disruption or whether the passengers knew each other wasn’t known, Holcomb said.
The Hawaiian Airlines flight resumed to Honolulu and arrived three hours late. It was the second time this week a flight to Hawaii had to change course because of an onboard disruption.
On Wednesday, a Maui-bound Hawaiian Airlines flight from Portland, Oregon, was turned around and escorted by two F-15 military fighters because of an uncooperative passenger. The US attorney’s office on Friday filed a charge of interfering with a crew member against the passenger, Joseph Hedlund Johnson of Salem, Oregon. Meanwhile, an Air Uganda flight to Sudan was diverted back to Kampala Saturday after the US Embassy in Khartoum warned American travelers of a “potential threat” to commercial flights between Uganda and South Sudan.
The plane had taken off from Entebbe airport and was on its way to Juba, the capital of South Sudan, when it was ordered to return as a precautionary step. Ignie Igunduura, spokesman for Uganda’s Civil Aviation Authority, said the plane had returned to Entebbe.
“No captain would ignore a warning of this nature,” Igunduura said. “We have heard this information before and we have been aware of this threat for some time.”
A warden’s message published on Friday on the US mission’s website said the embassy “has received information indicating a desire by regional extremists to conduct a deadly attack onboard Air Uganda aircraft” between Kampala and Juba.
