(note: the correct flight number is American Eagle flight 4518, not flight 518)

Two airline passengers were arrested at Raleigh-Durham International Airport earlier tonight after causing what airport spokeswoman Colleen Fischvogt has just confirmed with me was a "serious incident on American Eagle Flight 518 from Jacksonville." Local news station WRAL reports, "the disturbance was classified as a terrorist threat." 

In a telephone interview, Fischvogt also told me, "we received word from the pilot about the suspicious activity before the flight landed." Fischvogt explained that when Flight 518 landed, it sat on the tarmac for 45 minutes before FBI "took jurisdiction," boarded the plane and arrested two people. DHS and local law enforcement were also present on the tarmac but "FBI took over the sight and the situation," Fischvogt said. 

"Wait a minute," I asked, "The passengers were stuck inside the plane with two bad guys for 45 minutes before law enforcement boarded the aircraft?" I wanted to make sure I heard Fischvogt correctly.

"Yes," Fischvogt confirmed.  

Consider the agencies present 24/7 at the federalized Raleigh-Durham International Airport: FBI, DHS, (TSA & Federal Air Marshal Service), Joint Terrorism Task Force, ICE (Immigrations and Customs Enforcement) and airport police. And yet it took seven law enforcement agencies some forty-five minutes to put a single officer on the plane to counter the threat and secure the aircraft?

My analysis is that the delay was caused by FBI and DHS fighting over who had jurisdiction; protocol over 'acts of air piracy' are a constant source of bickering between the two agencies and have been the subject of at least one DHS Inspector General's Report. But what were the passengers doing, I asked Fischvogt?

"Using their cell phones to call people in the terminals and call the news media," Fischvogt said.

I asked Fischvogt the ethnicity of the two passengers who were arrested: "one report says 'of Middle Eastern descent' but I personally can not confirm that," she said.

I can be reached at Annie@TheAviationNation.com 

 

Share This Article