US military planes scrambled to divert a TAP-Air Portugal airliner carrying 235 people to New York to a military base, after a communications problem between the pilot and US air traffic controllers raised suspicions, an official of the Portuguese company said Friday.
The Airbus A320 plane was diverted to Dover Air Force Base in the state of Delaware, located some 250 kilometres (155 miles) south of New York, on Thursday morning, TAP spokesman Antonio Monteiro said.
The plane was at least an hour away from New York at the time, and the incident was apparently related to the high level of alert in US air space around the city for the anniversary of last year's attacks.
Military vehicles with soldiers carrying machine guns surrounded the aircraft and passengers were ordered off in groups of 15, according to a journalist with Portuguese newsweekly "Visao" who was aboard the flight.
"We were searched one by one before being taken by bus to the airport hangar," Helena Lopes said in an article published in the online version of the newsweekly on Friday.
Passengers and crew were questioned by police while the airliner underwent a security check.
US authorities told private radio TSF the flight crew failed to follow instructions from air traffic controllers about temporary flight restrictions in the New York area related to anniversary observances of last year's terrorist attacks.
"It is obvious we will look into what happened to see if those assertions are valid, but everything needs to be seen in terms of the current context," Monteiro said.
The passengers were allowed back on the plane to make the final leg of their journey to JFK Airport in New York, their original destination, some six hours after the airliner was diverted.
"All the bags went through an X-ray machine again and were sniffed by police dogs, while the police made sure everyone got back on the plane," Lopes said. The plane had started its journey in Lisbon.
Citing fresh intelligence on terrorism, US officials put the country on a high level of alert Tuesday, a day before the one-year anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
AFP