[Infowarrior] - ‘Nonserious’ Incident on Same Flight to Detroit

[Richard Forno]

December 28, 2009
A ‘Nonserious’ Incident on Same Flight to Detroit
By MICHELINE MAYNARD
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/28/us/politics/w28talk.html?pagewanted=print
DETROIT — The pilots of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam  
to Detroit — the same flight involved in Friday’s terrorism attempt —  
requested emergency assistance Sunday upon landing in Detroit, an  
airport spokesman said.

The crew had requested police assistance on the ground because a  
passenger was “verbally disruptive,” according to a statement from  
Delta Airlines, which acquired Northwest last year.

A Homeland Security official described the incident as “nonserious.”

The Transportation Safety Administration said in a statement that it  
had been alerted to a “disruptive passenger on board” Flight 253. The  
T.S.A. said that the flight landed safely at Detroit International  
Airport at approximately 12:35 p.m. Eastern “without incident.”

“The aircraft has been moved to a remote location for additional  
screening,” the agency said. “T.S.A. and law enforcement met the  
aircraft upon arrival, the passenger is now in custody.”

A little before 4 p.m., the large white jetliner sat at the southeast  
corner of the vast Detroit Metropolitan Airport, surrounded by police  
and other emergency vehicles with their lights flashing in the fading  
afternoon light amid falling snowflakes.

At 3:55 p.m., CNN said that law enforcement authorities has offered an  
"all clear" signal — indicating that thethreat had passed — and the  
plane began to be moved.

Rows of bags and luggage remained on the tarmac, approached by dogs  
sniffing for contraband, whether as serious as explosive devices or  
the usual agricultural products not allowed to be flown in on  
passenger jets.

Bill Burton, a White House spokesman, said that President Obama,  
vacationing in Hawaii, had been notified “shortly after 9:00 a.m.  
Hawaiian time of the

incident regarding an unruly passenger on the flight arriving in  
Detroit by N.S.S. chief of staff Denis McDonough.”

“The President stressed the importanceof maintaining heightened  
security measures for all air travel and gaveinstructions to set up  
another secure teleconference briefing as soon as possible,” Mr.  
Burton added.

Police vehicles met the plane at the far end of the airport, and five  
buses drove up to the plane, in a repeat of the same scene that  
occurred on Friday.

“It’s a pretty typical response,” Scott Winter, the airport spokesman,  
said of the police vehicles. “With an aircraft situation, speed is of  
the essence.”

Television news showed scenes of lined-up luggage on the tarmac being  
approached by a bomb-sniffing dog.

Even before the plane arrived, it was already running more than an  
hour late, according to the arrivals board inside the airport.

The Associated Press reported that the passenger in question was a man  
from Nigeria, the same country of suspect in Friday’s terrorism  
attempt. The second Nigerian man was taken into custody after locking  
himself in the airliner’s lavatory, The A.P. reported. CNN reported  
that the man had locked himself in the lavatory for such a long time  
that the crew requested help on the ground.

Micheline Maynard reported from Detroit, and Elisabeth Bumiller from  
Washington.