`Suspicious activity' prompts authorities to turn US Airways flight around
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Posted 7:39AM on Monday, April 29, 2002
PHILADELPHIA - Passengers were pulled from a Florida-bound US Airways flight after they aroused suspicion among federal authorities, who ordered the plane to return to Philadelphia, the FBI said. <br>
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The FBI said the passengers were engaged "suspicious activity," but did not elaborate. They were taken off the flight Sunday without incident and questioned by the FBI, spokeswoman Linda Vizi said. Bomb-sniffing dogs found no explosives, she said. <br>
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"Certain individuals on that plane were engaged in a pattern of suspicious activity," said Vizi. <br>
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Federal air marshals contacted the FBI about the passengers, Vizi said, and federal authorities in Washington, D.C., decided to make US Airways Flight 335 return to Philadelphia. <br>
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The plane carrying 134 passengers landed in Philadelphia at 7:05 p.m., less than an hour after takeoff. <br>
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"We landed and we're sitting around almost two hours. Finally, they said the FBI's coming on the plane and that's when the wave of emotion hits everyone," passenger Jack Clark told KYW-TV. <br>
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Passengers said four or five people had been acting suspiciously. Clark said a man sitting next to him was among those taken off the plane. <br>
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"He looked very suspicious. He was talking, but not to anyone in particular. He kept talking down into his chest," said Clark, of Blue Bell, Pa. <br>
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The remaining passengers on the flight went through security screening a second time and were sent to Orlando. The passengers whose actions were deemed suspicious had not been charged as of early Monday, Vizi said. <br>
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No other flights were delayed, airport spokesman Mark Pesce said. <br>
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An airline representative referred questions to the FBI. <br>
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