Authorities provided more information today about the three people detained on the Denver-to-Detroit flight Sunday afternoon, when two of them spent “an extraordinarily long time” in the restroom.
First, despite a report Sunday by ABC News that the pair was making out in the restroom, the FBI made clear in a statement this morning that “at no time were there ever two people in the bathroom at the same time.”
Rather, a man who was not feeling well went to the bathroom and another man followed soon after, the FBI stated. A woman who remained in her seat also was detained and questioned, but none of the three knew each other, according to the FBI.
None were charged. Their names were not released.
The ordeal began when the flight crew aboard Frontier Flight 623 became suspicious, as awareness of potential terrorist attacks were heightened on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that employed hijacked jetliners.
Metropolitan Wayne County Airport is the same location of the failed terrorist attack — involving explosive sewn into Nigerian man’s underwear — on a Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas Day 2009.
Sunday afternoon the Frontier pilot radioed and alert to the tower and the flight was met by law enforcement, who detained the three and searched the plane with bomb-sniffing dogs.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command, based at Peterson Air Force Base in El Paso County, had scrambled two F-16 jets to shadow the flight until it landed.
The Transportation Security Administration released a statement Sunday saying the measures were taken “out of an abundance of caution.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com
