12 arrested after Northwest Airlines turned back!

Passengers ‘looked into plastic bags, passed cell phones’

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (CNN) – Dutch police said Wednesday that 12 passengers were in custody after a Northwest Airlines flight bound for Mumbai, India, returned to Amsterdam when several people on board aroused concern.

No formal charges have been laid, police said.

A U.S. government official said that some of the passengers had pulled out cell phones during the flight, and that some appeared to be trying to pass the cell phones to other passengers.

In addition, some passengers unfastened their seatbelts while the light requiring they be fastened was still illuminated, the official said.

That was enough to cause U.S. air marshals aboard the flight to break their cover. Fight attendants ordered the passengers to heed the orders of the marshals, the official added.

An airline source in Amsterdam said the passengers who were arrested were looking into plastic bags and were busy with their cell phones.

he spokesman said the 12 – whose identities have not been made public – face preliminary charges, but did not elaborate.

Flight 42 returned to Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport after “a couple of passengers displayed behavior of concern,” according to Northwest Airlines.

“Northwest is cooperating with the appropriate government officials,” the company’s statement said.

The flight, which originated in Northwest’s main hub of Minneapolis-St. Paul a day earlier, landed at Schiphol around noon (6 a.m. ET), about half an hour after it had left, TSA said.

There were 149 passengers on board, Northwest said. Flight 42 has been canceled and will be rescheduled for Thursday.

A spokeswoman for Schiphol Airport said the pilot had made the request to return to Amsterdam.

“A number of them behaved, in the opinion of the crew, in a suspicious manner,” the Defense Ministry told The Associated Press. “As a result, the captain asked to return to Schiphol.”

Security has been heightened at airports worldwide after revelation of an alleged plot to blow up planes traveling across the Atlantic using liquid explosives. The alleged plot, which was uncovered by British authorities on August 10, involved flights from Britain to the United States.

As a matter of security, the Federal Air Marshal Service does not confirm which flights are patrolled by air marshals.

In general, federal air marshals do not identify themselves to passengers if they believe the crew can handle a situation without assistance.

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Re: 12 arrested after Northwest Airlines turned back!

^^ Havent heard anything about their nationality/religion yet. Any guesses ??

Wonder if its a case of racial profiling ??

Re: 12 arrested after Northwest Airlines turned back!

Don't know but Indian media is telecasting all over India live from Amsterdam. But according to me I think PK would be more curious to know about their nationality If this was really an another terrorist attempt.

Re: 12 arrested after Northwest Airlines turned back!

Okay, they may have been some psychos about to do something idiotic, but the way teh story is reported just made me chuckle

1- if you have a pda/celphone combo and the phone capability is turned off during flight, there is no issue..I recall using my treo on flights, passing it to colleagues travelling with me to

a) sharepics
b) share jokes, news clips, trivia, all kinds of stuff downloaded on the device
c) play games.. try to beat each others score..

#2- looking into plastic bags? hmmmmmm now thats scary…

#3- oooo they unfastened seatbelts when the fasten seatbelt light was illuminated. many jackasses do that..I have never been on a flight where someone is not doing it.

So either we dont know the whole deal, or the airmarshal and crew did a fantastic job of avoiding a tragedy, or morons jumped the gun (pun intended)

Re: 12 arrested after Northwest Airlines turned back!

Thank you for the news mr. reporter, did you pickup your paycheck yet? :hoonh:

Re: 12 arrested after Northwest Airlines turned back!

Still waiting :smack: please you pay, i’ll surely give you your 50% share Promise :frowning:

Re: 12 arrested after Northwest Airlines turned back!

Dutch Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner has said that the return of a U.S. Northwest Airlines plane bound for India to Amsterdam did not seem to have been prompted by a terrorist threat.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/08/24/dutch.airlines.reut/index.html

Much ado about nothing ??

Re: 12 arrested after Northwest Airlines turned back!

They are Indians :stuck_out_tongue:

Source

All twelve arrested have been released to be set free on destination in India… keep public on toes and they will toe the bills for ‘extra-security’, ‘no-privacy’ etc :k:

Re: 12 arrested after Northwest Airlines turned back!

All of them are released.

India Zindabad

Re: 12 arrested after Northwest Airlines turned back!

Ya all of them were Indians so one thing is cleared like always they could not be terrorists...:p

Re: 12 arrested after Northwest Airlines turned back!

Were they Indian Muslims or Indian Hindu? I am sure that would have made a differnece.

If they were Indian Muslims our fellow Indian guppies would complained about Islam, Muslims, this and that, terrorist. But if they are Indian hindu than they are not terrorist.

Re: 12 arrested after Northwest Airlines turned back!

they were all indian muslims…some had full beards. all have been released.

India protests over plane arrests

India has lodged a formal protest with the Dutch government after 12 of its citizens on board a US Northwest Airlines flight were arrested.

The plane, bound for Mumbai (Bombay), returned to Amsterdam escorted by fighter jets, after the crew said some passengers were behaving suspiciously.

The Indian government summoned the Dutch ambassador to convey its unhappiness over the incident.

The Dutch government said it was simply following normal procedure.

We have protested and expressed shock about the incident. There was treatment that was objectionable
Navtej Sarna
Indian Foreign Ministry

An Indian government source quoted by AFP news agency said the anger stemmed partly from the handcuffing of the 12 during the incident.

US air marshals on the plane were involved in the initial detention of the men.

Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said India had “called for a detailed report on the incident from Holland”.

“We’ve told the Dutch ambassador that we take this matter very seriously and that it was not in conformity with the friendly relations between the Netherlands and India,” he said.

“We have protested and expressed shock about the incident. There was treatment that was objectionable.”

Mr Sarna said the Dutch government had told India there was no intention of racial discrimination.

India’s junior foreign minister, Anand Sharma, told journalists that the ambassador, Eric Niehe, had expressed regret over the incident.

‘No apology’

However, the Dutch government said no apology was owed, as normal security procedures had been followed.

“The ambassador explained to the Indian authorities what happened but there was no question of an apology,” a Dutch foreign ministry spokesman told AFP.

Dutch prosecutors said the 12 passengers had refused to follow instructions given by the crew, and were moving round the plane and making telephone calls when they should not have been, Dutch reports said.

The men are now on their way back to India after being released without charge.

Mr Sarna said: “We will get all the details from them when they arrive back in India tonight.”

Anger at ‘bias’

Ten of the detainees are from Mumbai, India’s commercial centre, and were returning home from a business trip.

Relatives of the some of the 12, together with Muslim leaders, said the incident reflected a growing international problem in which Muslims were the subject of bias.

“This calculated, systematic demonisation of Muslims is going to get worse in the coming days,” said Shabnam Hashmi, a spokeswoman for the New Delhi-based human rights movement Act Now for Harmony and Democracy.

Re: 12 arrested after Northwest Airlines turned back!

next time a Muslim gets up from his seat in plane, please don't get your pants wet :CareBear:

Re: 12 arrested after Northwest Airlines turned back!

Captain ab jisko susu aayega wahi to khara hoga na :confused:

Re: 12 arrested after Northwest Airlines turned back!

but according to so many plane related incidents lately it seems like its the others who get the urge for susu or poopoo.

Re: 12 arrested after Northwest Airlines turned back!

But If I'm not wrong Captain in London incident they were with their bottles :D for emergency susu or poopoo

Re: 12 arrested after Northwest Airlines turned back!

^ which passengers with emergency bottles?

Re: 12 arrested after Northwest Airlines turned back!

The same who were trying to get in plane with their emergency bottles but as you know Captain Amergency bottles are not allowed in plane so they got arrested and now they will be surely using their bottles in jail for emergency susu and poopoo :clown:

Re: 12 arrested after Northwest Airlines turned back!

^ you do deserve that icon in the end of your post → :clown:

Re: 12 arrested after Northwest Airlines turned back!

:biggthumb as you say maharaj ji