Diverted Flight Is False Alarm

U.S. officials ordered a Paris-to-Boston Air France jet carrying 196 passengers to divert to Bangor, Maine, yesterday because the name of a passenger on board appeared to match that of a suspected terrorist on the no-fly list. It turned out to be a false alarm.

The Department of Homeland Security realized mid-flight that a passenger's Middle Eastern name was spelled only slightly differently from the suspected terrorist on the watch list and his date of birth matched exactly, according to a government source familiar with the incident. But by that point, the source said, the Airbus A330-200 was three hours from landing in the United States and officials decided to divert the plane. After detaining and questioning the male passenger and three family members, officials concluded it was not the same person as the suspected terrorist on the list.

"After a thorough interview and review of the facts on the ground by Customs and Border Protection, the individual in question was deemed admissible to the United States," said agency spokeswoman Christiana Halsey.

Air France Flight 332 was delayed for 1 hour and 40 minutes in Bangor, as law enforcement officers escorted the passenger and his wife and two children off the plane. The plane departed without them, landing safety in Boston at 4:40 p.m., the airline said. The man and his family were placed on another scheduled commercial flight from Bangor to Boston by early evening.

More than a half-dozen flights bound for the United States have been diverted or turned back to their original destination in the past year for similar concerns about passengers on board, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

Yesterday, TSA officials said they did not learn about the apparent no-fly list match until after Customs ran its search. "We took appropriate action and, in the end, we're explaining an unfortunate inconvenience rather than a terrible disaster," said TSA spokesman Mark Hatfield.