The lead paragraphs on Monday from the Associated Press read thusly:
Police temporarily detained and questioned three passengers at Detroit's Metropolitan Airport on Sunday after the crew of the Frontier Airlines flight from Denver reported suspicious activity on board, and NORAD sent two F-16 jets to shadow the flight until it landed safely, airline and federal officials said.The three passengers who were taken off the plane in handcuffs were released Sunday night, and no charges were filed against them, airport spokesman Scott Wintner said.
Folks on the plane reported seeing two men and one woman, all seated in the same row, acting "suspiciously" and taking multiple trips to the bathroom on the flight. It was the tenth anniversary of 9/11. Fears were heightened. An abundance of caution was being shown. Thus the SWAT team, the scrambled jets, the handcuffs, the questions.
After the interrogation, authorities discovered nothing was amiss. None of them knew each other. They were released, free to go. Plenty of jokes on Twitter were made about the possibility of folks trying for a mile-high accomplishment and getting in trouble. That was not the case.
