Flight Diverted After Passenger's Implant Claim
A North Carolina-bound jetliner was diverted to Maine on Tuesday after a passenger claimed to have a device surgically implanted inside her, according to an article on CNN.com.
Doctors aboard US Airways Flight 787 examined the woman and found no signs of recent scars, according to the office of Rep. Peter King, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. A federal law enforcement source told CNN that the woman would likely receive a psychological evaluation and posed “basically no threat.”
The Paris-to-Charlotte flight made an unscheduled stop in Bangor, Maine, “out of an abundance of caution,” according to the TSA. U.S. fighter jets escorted the plane to the airport, and passengers say that the woman was taken off the plane in handcuffs upon landing.
The Boeing 767 carried 179 passengers and a crew of nine. A passenger said that the woman was sweaty and acting nervous.
A senior law enforcement official told CNN that authorities have determined that no bomb was involved. Although the woman handed a note to the flight crew indicating that she had a device implanted in her body, she did not say if it was a bomb or that she was threatening the flight, CNN reports.
While still in the air, the plane’s crew told passengers that the plane was landing in Maine because of uncharacteristically strong headwinds that required the flight to take on more fuel, CNN says.
After the flight landed, passengers said, one of the pilots apologized, saying that he typically likes to keep passengers informed, but the TSA and customs control had ordered him to claim a fuel deficiency.
There is no indication that the woman, a Cameroon-born French citizen, was on any kind of government watch list.
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