Asia-Pacific
NY plane halted, "no fly" passenger aboard
(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-05-07 01:07
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NEW YORK: U.S. authorities have stopped an Emirates airline flight destined for Dubai on a taxiway at New York's JFK airport with a passenger on the "no fly" list on board, local media said on Thursday.
The incident came five days after a failed bomb attack on New York's Times Square that has heightened security concerns in America's most populous city. The suspect in that case was detained as he tried to take an Emirates flight to Dubai.
In Thursday's incident Department of Homeland Security vehicles were nearby and the flight tower was notified that the aircraft was returning to the gate, according to Breaking News Network, a news service that monitors police scanners.
A spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration confirmed Emirates Airlines flight 204 was stopped at JFK.
Prosecutors on Tuesday charged Faisal Shahzad, 30, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Pakistan, with five counts, including attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and trying to kill and maim people within the United States.
Shahzad had bought a ticket and boarded the plane on Monday evening despite having been put on a U.S. government "no-fly" list earlier in the day.
On Wednesday, the Obama administration ordered airlines to step up their efforts to prevent people on the list from boarding flights
Shahzad is accused of driving a crude homemade bomb of gasoline, propane gas, fireworks and fertilizer into Times Square on a warm Saturday evening.
New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said the Times Square plot was the 11th thwarted attack on New York City since hijacked airliners destroyed the World Trade Center's twin towers on September 11, 2001, killing more than 2,700 people.
