Terrorism: U.S. detains Nigerian on ‘no-fly list’
By Chinedu Offor (Washington D.C), Adeola Yusuf and Abel Orukpe (Lagos) (With Agency Report)
• Suspect boarded Delta Airlines jet in Abuja
advertisement
Delta Airline flight 215 from Nigeria was prevented from entering the United States on Wednesday by Homeland Security officials, who said “a person of interest” on board was detained..
The plane left Abuja on the day enroute the United States via Dakar, but was detained at San Juan in Puerto Rico.
Delta Airline confirmed the arrest of the aircraft in an email message to Daily Independent on Thursday.
The Homeland Security Department said the passenger would be interrogated before his identity is made public.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency issued a statement identifying the passenger only as a “potential person of interest” who was removed from the flight for further questioning and kept in custody.
Spokeswoman Jenny Burke declined to provide details, but Delta said it received a request from the government to board and remove the passenger during the refueling stop in Puerto Rico.
A passenger, Joan Mower, told the Associated Press (AP) that the pilot disclosed the apparent breach as the flight stopped to refuel.
She recounted that the pilot said he was informed about the passenger while over the Atlantic.
The man detained had apparently boarded the jet in Nigeria, even though he is on the U.S. no-fly list.
There was no incident on board, passengers were not in any danger, and the flight continued to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport afterward, according to Delta Spokeswoman Susan Chana Elliott.
Flight 215 originated in Abuja, where the man boarded the jet, which continued on to New York after he was detained.
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol said the man is being held for questioning.
He was taken into custody without incident.
Customs officials had no immediate comment.
U.S. aviation authorities have been on heightened alert since a Nigerian, Farouk Abdulmutallab, tried to set off a bomb in his underwear on an American passenger plane in December last year.
It was learnt that the Delta aircraft had at press time left Puerto Rico enroute John F. Kennedy Airport where it was expected to land at 11:51 a.m. Washington time.
However, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) denied knowledge of the detention of the aircraft.
NCAA Director General, Harold Demuren, said: “If such a thing happened, it could be that the airline is owing over-flight charges.”
Founded in 1928, and first known as Delta Air Service, Delta Airline originally served Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama in the U.S.
Read more…
