Dutch authorities are still holding the 12 people arrested and taken off a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Mumbai. They have three days under Dutch law until they must either charge or release the people. There is still no word on exactly what the people did, but it sounds like a number of other passengers felt very, very certain something was badly wrong.
The Bombay, India-bound Northwest Airlines flight turned around over German air space Wednesday and returned to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport after a group of passengers aroused suspicion by using their mobile phones following take-off, officials said.
The Defense Ministry said the plane's captain radioed Amsterdam seeking permission to return with a military escort, and jet fighters were scrambled from a northern Dutch military air field.
A U.S. government official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the subject, said that crew members and air marshals observed the passengers attempting to use cell phones and passing cell phones back and forth while the airliner was taking off.
"It was behavior that average passengers wouldn't do," the official said.
Passengers on the diverted flight gave varying accounts.
The Algemeen Dagblad newspaper quoted Nitin Patel of Boston, who sat behind the men in business class, as saying, "I don't know how close we were, but my gut tells me these people wanted to hijack the airplane."
Another passenger, who was not identified, told NOS television he sat next to one of the men and saw nothing suspicious.
A third, who identified herself only as Alpa, told AP Television News that some of the men appeared to be of South Asian ethnicity.
It is not at all unusual to have conflicting stories since not all people were looking at exactly the same series of events from the same viewpoint.
UPDATE: Dutch media is reporting that the Justice Minister is now saying that the incident is not terrorism related. I have no idea what is going on at the moment.
But NOS news quoted Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner as saying there were no signs of a terrorist threat aboard the flight.
It’s definitely not unusual to have conflicting stories. James Woods, the actor, has talked of flying in the months before 9/11 and noticing behavior among a group of “South Asian” men that seemed so odd to him that he warned a stewardess. In post-9/11 retrospect, he figured it was a “trial” run for 9/11. As an actor, Woods explained that he regularly observers people; so he was naturally inclined to observe this sort of thing — while others on the flight were oblivious it.
Also, on another front: Having to make charges or release these folks in three days sounds OK for a run-of-the-mill criminal offense — but NOT for a terrorism-related offense. Maybe the Dutch still don’t get it either.