Jetliner Lust Attracts F-16s
By JOHN MARZULLI and BILL HUTCHINSON
Daily News Staff Writers
randy, drug-fueled romp in a New York-bound jet's rest room sparked a midair terror scare that sent a pair of F-16 fighter jets scrambling, authorities revealed yesterday.
But the red alert aboard American Airlines Flight 101 from London on Friday gave way to red faces when authorities discovered all the fuss was over two amorous British men.
Police said the passengers, whose names were not released, admitted smoking crack cocaine and having sex in the cramped rest room.
The miles-high ordeal began about 8:15 a.m. Friday on the London-to-New York flight, said an American Airlines spokeswoman.
Flight attendants complained to the pilot that the two men were acting suspiciously, making four or five trips to the rest room together.
"A captain had requested that the local authorities meet the two passengers at the gate at Kennedy," said airline spokeswoman Sonja Whitemon.
Air Force Listens In
Air Force officials overheard the captain's radio dispatch to American Airlines operations and sent two F-16s to intercept the jetliner over the Atlantic Ocean, said Federal Aviation Administration officials.
Whitemon insisted the airplane's crew did not ask for the military escort.
"The captain requested that that not happen because he didn't believe the situation was that serious, but it happened anyway," Whitemon said.
The two passengers were asleep when the plane touched down at JFK and were escorted off by Port Authority, Customs and FAA agents.
No drugs were found on the men, who were not charged with any crimes. Immigration officials denied them entry into the country because they admitted smoking crack in the rest room, law enforcement officials said.
The men were put back on a plane bound for London later Friday, officials said.