7 People Escorted Off Plane at LAX

Seven people were escorted off an America West flight by armed officers Saturday at Los Angeles International Airport after passengers told a flight crew that a male passenger was making them nervous, authorities said.

Flight 616 bound for Phoenix was preparing to taxi from the gate when passengers noticed a man, whom they believed to be Middle Eastern, standing up and passing papers to an older man. Flight attendants then alerted the captain, who called in airport police. Officers boarded and removed several pieces of luggage from the overhead cabins, passengers said.

The FBI questioned the two adult males, one adult female and four children and released them shortly after, officials said. No arrests were made. The travelers did not return to the original flight.

The older man, Nejatullah Sherzad, said he and his family are refugees from Afghanistan and have been living in India for several years. He said they did not know the man who stood up. Sherzad said his family and the unidentified man were part of a United Nations refugee group.

“I’m not angry,” said Sherzad, 52. “But it was not right what the police did to disturb people.”

America West officials said the captain erred on the side of caution. After being postponed for about an hour, Flight 616 departed shortly after 4:30 p.m. and landed in Phoenix at 5:18 p.m. There were 102 people on board, airport officials said.

“Since Sept. 11, people have been on edge,” said Jim Sabourin, vice president of corporate communications for the airline. “We did what we felt was the right thing to do, based on the fact that a number of passengers were uncomfortable and nervous about what they saw.”

FBI and airport officials said there have been a few incidents that have shaken nerves and caused flight delays at LAX since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. The most recent, and the only one resulting in an arrest, occurred on Thursday when fighter jets escorted a jumbo jet back to the Los Angeles airport after a disruptive passenger allegedly threatened to kill Americans.

Saturday’s incident began at about 3:30 p.m., just after the doors closed on the America West flight.

The man stood up and passed his travel itinerary to an older man, said Nancy Castles, public relations director for Los Angeles World Airports. He then asked a flight attendant if he could get off the airplane to retrieve other documents, she said.

“Where was he going to get these documents?” Castles said. “That’s why it was considered suspicious behavior.”

Castles said the man had a Sudanese passport, but had been living in the United States for several years. The other six travelers were related to each other, she said.

Several passengers, including Linda Dow, promptly told flight attendants that they were worried about flying with the group.

“[The man] kept walking up and down the aisle,” said Dow, 46, after landing in Phoenix. “I thought, this guy is up to something.”

Responding to the concerns of anxious crew members and passengers, the captain decided to postpone the departure and to report the disturbance. Officers who boarded the plane told passengers to clear the aisle or risk losing their arms, Dow said.

“It was scary,” said passenger Skip Walters, 41, as he arrived in Phoenix. “The police told us to get out of the aisles. They weren’t messing around.”

One woman and her child voluntarily got off the plane after the scare because they did not want to fly, authorities said.

Passenger Steve Dow, 35, said he did not believe the man had any plans to hijack the plane. “I don’t think the guy was a terrorist,” said Dow, Linda Dow’s husband. “I think the guy was probably just a foreigner who was confused.”

FBI officials released the family after brief questioning, and let the other man go after more thorough interrogation, authorities said.

“There was a determination that there was no real, legitimate concern,” said FBI spokesperson Matt McLaughlin.

The seven passengers were scheduled to leave on a later flight out of LAX to Baltimore, their original destination, authorities said.

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Times staff writer Hector Becerra contributed to this story. Morin reported from Phoenix.