The Middle Eastern men removed from a Washington-bound flight Sunday were Qatari military officials headed to meet with Pentagon counterparts, officials said yesterday.
"There was a delegation from Qatar that was supposed to meet with DOD officials for a bilateral defense talk with counterparts from the DOD," a Pentagon spokeswoman said last night.
The spokeswoman described the planned talks as "an important opportunity to continue building on the strong cooperative relationship which we have with Qatar."
"We regret that the incident occurred," the spokeswoman said.
Air Force Maj. Susan Idziak said that the meeting was not held and that she did not know whether it had been rescheduled.
The incident began shortly after 1 p.m. aboard US Airways Flight 480 from Orlando to Reagan National Airport. A federal air marshal reported that a group of about six Middle Eastern men appeared to be behaving in a suspicious manner.
The men appeared to know each other and were gesturing to each other, a spokesman for the air marshal service said. After the marshal reported the behavior to the crew, the Boeing 727-4000 with more than 140 passengers was diverted to Jacksonville, Fla.
Those who had aroused suspicion were asked to leave the airplane. Their bags were examined, and the men were questioned.
It was determined that the men presented no threat, and they were booked onto a later flight, the air marshal spokesman said.
That flight, however, was reported delayed by weather, and it could not be confirmed last night that the Qatari delegation reached Washington.
Qatari officials authorized to discuss the matter could not be reached last night. A State Department media duty officer said she had no information about the situation. A US Airways spokeswoman could not confirm that the men had arrived.
Brian Doyle, a spokesman for the air marshal service, said that "from reports I've heard, the Qataris have said it's no hard feelings." Qatar is a country of about 750,000 people on the Persian Gulf.
