No passengers were injured, Freed said.
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A flight about to leave Chicago was halted when a group of six to eight men demanded to sit together, making fellow passengers nervous.
The passengers were removed from Southwest Flight 126 from Chicago to Houston.
However, a spokesman has rejected calls from Muslim advocacy groups to apologize for ejecting the group.
The plane was taxiing to the runway when the flight crew chose to return to the gate and the captain asked police to remove three men and a woman from the plane, he said.
Four people were removed from a Chicago-bound flight at Baltimore-Washington global Thurgood Marshall Airport on Tuesday morning after a passenger reported what she believed was suspicious behavior, but they were released hours later without charges, officials said.
Air France said in a statement that one flight, from Los Angeles worldwide Airport to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris was diverted to Salt Lake City global Airport on Tuesday night.
Airline personnel told Chicago police that someone on the flight had tried to save seats for friends, causing upset among other passengers.
Buses greeted the plane and all passengers were placed on the buses and taken to a Delta holding area where they were questioned.
“Unfortunately, I think we’re going to see more and more of this, Hooper said”.
A woman with whom KPRC 2 News spoke was a passenger on the flight and she live-tweeted the entire thing as she watched it play out. He said he did not know whether they made a decision to continue their journey.
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Salt Lake City global Airport was notified of the threat and diversion around 7 p.m. The bomb threat was reportedly phoned into the plane.
