LAX Flight Aborts Takeoff Due To Suspicious Behavior

UPDATE: The FBI has determined that a passenger removed from the United Airlines flight this morning posed no “identifiable threat” to the plane or its passengers and officials do not expect to file criminal charges.

This may not be as serious as first thought. An NBC news report includes a conversation with one of the passengers aboard the plane.

“The gentleman said he had to go to the bathroom and that he couldn’t wait,” a passenger said. “The pilot said somebody is ill. We were just about to take off.”

Passenger Charlie Rosene was seated two rows behind a passenger that was removed from the plane.

“I was sitting in Row 25, the first guy who was taken off was in Row 23,” said Rosene at about 11:30 a.m. “It was 30 seconds before takeoff, and he jumped out of his seat and said, ‘I need to go to the bathroom. I need to go to the bathroom.’ The flight attendant called that out and saw that as a red flag. He said, ‘I’m going.’”

Rosene said the passenger was in the restroom for about 30 seconds. He said the man returned to his seat.

Source

Waiting for additional details.

From The LA Times

The Los Angeles Times is reporting a plane was stopped from taking off from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), and two men on board were taken into custody, according to the LAPD.

According to the report, LAPD Lt. John Romero said the men, who appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent, were acting suspiciously.

A law enforcement source said at least one of the men ran into a restroom on the plane and appeared to hide while the New York-bound jet was taxiing on the runway, according to the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the case was ongoing.

The flight crew confronted the two men and made the decision to stop the plane before it took off, the source said. The men were taken into custody by heavily armed law enforcement officials.

The plane has been taken to a remote area of the airport to be searched by a bomb squad, sources said.

Source

Passengers report that United Flight 22 was about to take off when a man in row 23 leapt up, stating he needed to go to the bathroom. Passenger Charlie Rosene says the man ran to the bathroom despite a flight attendant’s orders to sit down. The pilot returned the plane to the gate where the man and his companion were taken off the flight for questioning, and the plane was searched.

Source

United Airlines Flight 22 was bound for Cairo with a scheduled stop at JFK International Airport in New York.

LAX Employee Arrested In Alleged Human Smuggling

A longtime elevator mechanic at Los Angeles International Airport has been charged with smuggling illegal immigrants into the United States by leading them out of the terminal before they were inspected by federal authorities. Read more