The CBS affiliate in South Caroline tells 11 News a passenger on the plane called a family member, saying the flight was from Atlanta to San Francisco. The Colorado Springs Airport says it was an AirTran 737, flight #39 with 132 passengers on board. A passenger was drunk and argumentative and locked himself in the bathroom of the plane.
The flight landed in Colorado Springs and the man was immediately apprehended by Colorado Springs police.
The plane is still at a gate at this time. Passengers from the flight tell 11 News all of the passengers have been taken off the plane and are congregated in the concourse. No one was injured.
The FBI will be investigating the incident. NORAD tells 11 News they flew two F-16 fighters to respond to the scene.
NORAD released the following statement regarding the incident:
Two F-16 fighters under the direction of Continental U.S. North American Aerospace Defense Command Region launched at 11:44 a.m. MST today in response to reports of an unruly passenger aboard Air Tran Flight 39 from Atlanta bound for San Francisco.
The fighters arrived overhead of Colorado Springs Municipal Airport as the pilot of the commercial airliner landed the Boeing 737 there safely at approximately noon MST, where the plane was met by law enforcement.
NORAD’s mission - in close collaboration with homeland defense, security, and law enforcement partners - is to prevent air attacks against North America, safeguard the sovereign airspaces of the United States and Canada by responding to unknown, unwanted and unauthorized air activity approaching and operating within these airspaces, and provide aerospace and maritime warning for North America. NORAD may be required to monitor, shadow, divert from flight path, direct to land and/or destroy platforms deemed a potential threat to North America.
The Colorado Springs Airport tells 11 News there are no other delays at the airport as a result of this incident.
http://www.kktv.com/news/headlines/81020117.html
Airtran Flt 39.
That’s the same flight number of the unruly passenger incident Wed., a Hawaiian Airlines flight out of Portland to Maui. Fighter jets were scrambled for that one too.