Airport security: Four passengers removed from flight in Baltimore
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Molly Jackson Staff
Law enforcement is questioning three men and one woman who were removed from a Chicago-bound flight from Baltimore Tuesday morning after a fellow passenger alerted flight crew to suspicious activity as the plane taxied toward the runway.
Spirit Airlines Flight 969 returned to the gate at Baltimore-Washington听International Thurgood Marshall Airport, where all aboard were temporarily deplaned, according to , a passenger on the flight.听
Crew asked police to remove four passengers, who are being interviewed. Maryland Transportation Authority representative听Sgt. Jonathan Green told the Baltimore Sun that 听as of 9:30 Tuesday morning.
that听a government source said a female passenger who appeared to be Muslim was watching a video on her phone that another passenger thought was from Islamic State. The militant group has claimed responsibility for the attacks in Paris on Friday that killed 129 people.
A woman got up and went to the back of the plane with a small child as the plane was preparing for takeoff, said WJLA, an ABC affiliate.听First Sergeant Jonathan Green, a spokesman for the Maryland Transportation Authority police, said one of the four had been questioned and released.
Spirit Airline said that the flight, originally scheduled to depart at 6 a.m., had been cleared by the听Transportation Security Administration and took off after 9 a.m..
On Sunday, two passengers were removed from an American Airlines flight at nearby听Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. In that case, ; no charges have been filed.
The crash of a Russian charter plane in Sinai, Egypt last month, which Russian officials now say was听due to a homemade bomb explosion, raised alarm in US airports, which moved to tighten security. Worries over airport safety escalated after last week's terrorist attacks in Paris, which killed more than 120 people, and an Islamic State video released on Monday which threatens similar violence in Washington, DC.听
In Atlanta, the busiest airport in the world, , stepping up employee screening and cutting the number of access points to secure areas.听
Atlanta passenger Blake Alford says he accidentally flew to Chicago with a loaded semi-automatic pistol in his carryon, which airport security overlooked.
"People need to know ," Mr. Alford told CBS 46. "They'll take toothpaste. They'll make people get out of wheelchairs. They'll make me take off my belt buckle and my shoes. How did my gun go through?"
This report contains material from the Associated Press.听
