NEW YORK - Five foreign passengers on a US airliner were detained in a brief security scare Saturday until authorities learned they were in the United States “for a legitimate purpose,” an FBI spokesman said. The men raised suspicions on a domestic flight headed to Newark International Airport as they were referring to helicopter flight manuals and speaking to each other in a foreign language. “Rightfully so, people got suspicious,” said Stephen Kodak, a spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.Four of the detained passengers were identified as “Angolan military personnel” and the fifth was from Israel, FBI special agent Steve Siegel said.
Police boarded the American Airlines plane after it landed and detained the five passengers on request of plainclothes air marshals aboard the aircraft, which was bound from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in Texas. The five men were released after spending more than two hours in the custody of the FBI, according to Marc La Vorgna, a spokesman for the airport’s operator, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. “They had been going through training over in Texas to be helicopter mechanics. This was all authorized,” according to the FBI’s Kodak.
| I'm sure they understand the concern. |
The plane landed at 3:20 pm local time (1920 GMT) in Newark in the US state of New Jersey and was taken to a remote location at the airport, La Vorgna said. Authorities also conducted a special screening of the planeÂ’s luggage. Other passengers on the plane told US television that they observed nothing out of the ordinary and that the men drank wine and napped during the flight.