Vegas-bound plane diverted to Arkansas because of suspicious passengers

Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2002 | 10:48 a.m.

Flight 979, an Airbus A320 traveling from Memphis, Tenn., landed at Fort Smith late Wednesday morning, Northwest spokeswoman Mary Beth Schubert said. The plane carried 94 passengers and a crew of five.

Police and firefighters surrounded the aircraft, which was parked at the end of a runway.

Other passengers "were taken off and they are negotiating through the bathroom," said Jennifer Gordon, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Emergency Management.

Jim Harris, a spokesman for Gov. Mike Huckabee, said the men appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent.

But in Washington, federal officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said the incident was not believed to be a terrorist incident.

The Bush administration had raised the nation's terror alert warning to its second highest level Tuesday - code orange - signaling a "high risk" of attack with the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks at hand.

It wasn't clear who reported suspicions to the airline.

The TSA said three men had been acting strangely on the plane, but gave no specifics beyond saying they locked themselves in a bathroom. A fourth passenger also was detained, but his precise role was not immediately known.

The 188th Fighter Wing of the Arkansas Air National Guard said it did not provide a military escort for the Airbus, but an F-16 fighter jet landed at the municipal airport about 20 minutes after the Northwest plane.

The Airbus took off from Memphis at 8:47 a.m. Central time and was scheduled to arrive at Las Vegas at 10:19 a.m. Pacific time.