Curious, the plane had already landed!

Were any of them carrying almanacs?


Earl

*****


Travelers questioned after Dulles landing

WASHINGTON (AP) ‹ With U.S. authorities taking an increasingly aggressive
security stance on international flights headed for the United States, a
British Airways jet was isolated shortly after it landed at Washington
Dulles International Airport and some of its 247 passengers questioned.

Homeland Security spokeswoman Rachel Sunbarger said intelligence led the
agencies to detain the flight Wednesday night, but an FBI official, speaking
on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press the incident did not
involve terrorism.

Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Jennifer Marty said
passengers aboard Flight 223 from London's Heathrow Airport to Dulles were
questioned aboard the plane, which landed at 7:06 p.m. ET. Officials began
allowing passengers off the plane around 10:30 p.m.

Sunbarger said the baggage on board the flight underwent additional
screening.

The plane was kept several hundred feet from the terminal during the
questioning.

Passenger David Litwick told WJLA-TV in Washington that he and his wife were
not questioned, but at least one other passenger was. Litwick said four FBI
agents spoke to a woman who appeared to be from the Middle East, repeatedly
asking her why she was not traveling with her husband.

Earlier this week, a U.S.-bound flight from Mexico reversed course in midair
because of concerns about improper screening of passengers and another
Mexican flight was reported delayed on New Year's Eve because of U.S.
security concerns.

A Homeland Security official, asking not to be identified, said Mexican
authorities made the decision to turn the first plane around earlier this
week after the United States informed them it did not feel the airline had
taken adequate security measures.

Agustine Gutierrez Canet, Mexico's presidential spokesman, told the Los
Angeles Times that U.S. officials told Aeromexico that for security reasons,
Flight 490 would be denied landing rights in Los Angeles on Wednesday night.
But he said the passengers were allowed to leave on a later flight.

"Homeland Security should give an explanation why it denied landing rights
and then accepted the same passengers on another flight to Los Angeles,"
Gutierrez Canet told the paper.

Homeland Security officials could not be reached after news of the delayed
Los Angeles flight surfaced early Thursday.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that there have been five or six
recent instances of security officials meeting planes and doing ``reverse
screenings'' like the one in Dulles, interviewing passengers and searching
them for explosives, weapons and other contraband. It also said there was an
instance several days ago in which a flight headed for the United States
from an unidentified Latin American country was grounded on the runway for
several hours before being allowed to take off after United States officials
told the air carrier they were not satisfied that passengers had been
adequately screened initially.

The New York Times also reported that the United States had reached an
agreement with a French delegation under which the French will turn over
passenger lists for any at-risk flight at least one hour before takeoff,
rather than waiting until the flight is in the air, as is now done.

Several Air France flights between Paris and Los Angeles were canceled Dec.
24 because of terrorism concerns.

Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may
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