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Passengers Arrested After Flight Diverted to Amsterdam

Fox News and CNN are reporting this.

12 Arrested; 11 reportedly of South Asian descent.

Details to come...

Rule 8: I am hoping there were no innocent people jeopardized. (See how ridiculous some of you are?)

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The Northwest Airlines DC10 that was escorted back to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, by two Dutch F-16 jet fighters stands on the tarmac at the airport on Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2006.
FRED ERNST: AP
Aug. 23, 2006, 9:48AM
Dutch F-16s escort plane back to airport

By TOBY STERLING
© 2006 The Associated Press

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — Dutch F-16s escorted a Northwest Airlines flight bound for India back to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport on Wednesday after the crew reported some passengers were behaving suspiciously, authorities said.

Several passengers on Northwest Airlines Flight NW0042 to Bombay were taken off the plane for questioning after it landed safely, airport spokeswoman Pamela Kuypers said. Others were questioned at the gate.


The Dutch Defense Ministry and airport authorities said the pilot radioed for permission to return and asked for an escort of jet fighters when the crew's suspicions were aroused by several passengers.

"A number of them behaved, in the opinion of the crew, in a suspicious manner," said a Defense Ministry statement. "As a result, the captain asked to return to Schiphol. The customs police have taken a number of people off the plane for questioning."

Routine security measures were swiftly put into place.

The plane was carrying 149 passengers, when it turned around after crossing the German border. A Northwest DC 10 has a normal seating capacity of 273.

Customs police spokesman Rick Hirs said shortly after the plane landed that no one was immediately arrested.

The Dutch National Terrorism Coordinator's Office was informed, but said there was no reason to raise the national threat level, spokeswoman Judith Sluiter said.

The flight was canceled until Thursday, and the passengers were put up in hotels, Northwest said.

"It is the same as it was before _ light threat," said Sluiter.

Like airports around the world, Schiphol raised the level of security two weeks ago when British police announced they had uncovered a plot to blow up several U.S.-bound commercial jetliners, but Kuypers said threat levels had returned to normal.

Several alerts have been sounded since the terrorism plot was outlined in London. On Friday, a British plane made an emergency landing in southern Italy after a bomb scare, and the U.S. Air Force scrambled jets to escort a United Airlines flight from London to Washington as it was diverted to Boston.

Wednesday's security alert was the first at Amsterdam's international airport since September, when a British Airways flight returned in similar circumstances. It turned out to be a false alarm.

Dutch F-16s escort plane back to airport

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Aug. 24, 2006, 4:03AM
12 taken off Northwest flight questioned

By TOBY STERLING Associated Press Writer
© 2006 The Associated Press

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — Prosecutors on Thursday interrogated 12 men who were handcuffed and taken off a U.S. airliner in Amsterdam because U.S. air marshals and the crew believed they were acting suspiciously, a spokesman said.

Authorities have three days to bring the suspects before a judge to seek further detention. If they are deemed terror suspects, a judge could order them held for another 14 days without hard evidence, according to Dutch law.

Haarlem prosecutor's spokesman Ed Hartjes declined to say Thursday whether the men would face terrorism charges. "The investigation is still going on and at this moment we do not know anything more than yesterday," he said.

The Bombay, India-bound Northwest Airlines flight turned around over German air space Wednesday and returned to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport after a group of passengers aroused suspicion by using their mobile phones following take-off, officials said.

The Defense Ministry said the plane's captain radioed Amsterdam seeking permission to return with a military escort, and jet fighters were scrambled from a northern Dutch military air field.

A U.S. government official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the subject, said that crew members and air marshals observed the passengers attempting to use cell phones and passing cell phones back and forth while the airliner was taking off.

"It was behavior that average passengers wouldn't do," the official said.

Passengers on the diverted flight gave varying accounts.

The Algemeen Dagblad newspaper quoted Nitin Patel of Boston, who sat behind the men in business class, as saying, "I don't know how close we were, but my gut tells me these people wanted to hijack the airplane."

Another passenger, who was not identified, told NOS television he sat next to one of the men and saw nothing suspicious.

A third, who identified herself only as Alpa, told AP Television News that some of the men appeared to be of South Asian ethnicity.

The security alert was the latest among several incidents reported since British police said they foiled a plot to blow up U.S.-bound aircraft. On Friday, a British plane made an emergency landing in southern Italy after a bomb scare, and the U.S. Air Force scrambled jets to escort a United Airlines flight from London to Washington as it was diverted to Boston.

The Dutch national anti-terrorism office said it saw no reason to raise the country's threat level.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4138156.html