OSTON: Fighter jets escorted a London to Washington flight which was diverted to Boston’s Logan airport on Wednesday. A female passenger had an anxiety attack and is said to have been involved in a confrontation with the crew. “There are no known links to terrorism regarding this event at this time,” said Christopher White, a Transportation Security Administration spokesman.
Flight 923, carrying 182 passengers and 12 crew members was landed safely at Boston. The police arrested one person but refused to disclose his identity. The distraught woman passenger apparently pulled out a screwdriver, matches, Vaseline and a note referencing Al-Qaeda but later the report of any such possession was denied.
United spokesperson Brandon Borrman stated that the female passenger was spotted engaging in some suspicious activity, but he could not immediately say what the activity was
Nenette Day, a spokeswoman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Boston, said the 60-year-old woman was apparently claustrophobic and had become disruptive on the flight. “This isn’t just an ‘I want another drink kind of thing,’ it was a disruption that caused them to divert the plane,” she said.
Although terrorism cannot be linked to this incident at this time but the disturbance was enough for the pilot to issue an alert, as it came just after a week of the terror-threats in London.
The control of the plane was taken by state police and federal agencies, immediately after it landed. Passengers were taken off the plane and loaded onto a bus and the passenger luggage was removed from the plane and put on the tarmac, where it was rechecked by security officials and trained dogs.
Last week, British authorities foiled a terror plot to blow up trans-Atlantic flights from London to the United States. The security of air-passengers has been heightened since then.