Poll:
Do you feel safe when flying on airlines in the United States?
PORTLAND -- A flight from Washington, D.C. to Portland, Ore. was diverted for several hours in Chicago on Tuesday evening after security concerns involving passengers.
United Airlines spokesman Rahsaan Johnson said two to three passengers on Flight 251 were not following instructions, which inhibited employees from doing their jobs.
A source in Chicago familiar with the incident said six men of middle-Eastern descent were on the plane passing notes. All were detained, interviewed, and allowed to eventually continue to their destinations.
None of the passengers on the plane described more than three men involved in the incident.
KGW producer Sean Jacks on flight.
Shortly after takeoff, a passenger went quickly to a toilet. Sometime after that, a call went out for a doctor to help a sick passenger, Jacks said.
Somewhere over Wisconsin, passengers started to realize the plane was turning. The sunset was now behind them where they had been flying west. The pilot announced that there was a medical issue and that the flight was being diverted to O'Hare.
A translator was requested for the ill passenger. The ill man said in the past 24 hours, he had been in Paris and Saudi Arabia.
Jacks said there was some concern among passengers that the man may have a contagious disease and the flight was exposed.
Once on the ground at O'Hare, three men left the plane, the ill man, a companion, and the translator, who said he did not know the other two men. Jacks said he felt bad for the translator.
Passengers were told to leave their belongings on the plane, leave, and go through a security check again. The items left on board were also screened, Jacks said. Previously checked luggage in the plane's holds were not affected.
After the flight took off, the ill man and his companion were not on board.
The pilot came over the PA system and said he diverted the flight out of concern from the feedback he was getting from flight attendants about their interactions with the ill man. Jacks said he thought some of that concern might stem from the 'lost in translation' part of an interaction.
The buzz among passengers during the incident was overall one of understanding, he said. There was grumbling about the delay, he said, but passengers seemed to appreciate that security measures were necessary.
Passenger recollections vary slightly
Passenger Cliff Robinett described it to KGW as "strange goings on in the back of the plane" for security reasons.
He said a man was lying on the floor of the plane in the back of the plane. He did not speak English and an interpreter also had difficulty translating. Robinett said a doctor on the plane also tried to assist the passenger.
He said three men got off the plane, one of them ill. No one knew what was happening at the time, including TSA officials in Chicago, he said.
Stacy Niedermeyer of Southwest Portland was on the flight with her husband and four children.
She said the men involved were of middle-Eastern descent. One of them went back to the area in the back of the plane where attendants sit. He basically 'sat down on his bottom.' Some type of heated altercation took place.
Lydia Omelchenko said the suspect passengers were "strange people." Other passengers knew something was amiss and were texting about the incident, she said.
She reported that two men, one of them young, left the plane and neither looked ill.
Man pacing with backpack
Other passengers interviewed did not wish to be identified.
One said there were several incoherent passengers who looked "out of it."
Another reported a man with a backpack pacing back and forth, who got into an argument with a flight attendant.
Another said she understood it was some type of medical issue and despite it all, she never felt unsafe.
A passenger said a man feigned illness while others went to assist him.
Jacks said the airline offered all the passengers discounted tickets for a future flight.
Were you on the flight or know a passenger? Send us an email to newsdesk@kgw.com.
Flight arrive 4 hours late
The flight -- which was headed from Dulles International Airport to Portland International Airport (PDX) -- was diverted to O'Hare International Airport at around 7:30 p.m. CST.
Passengers aboard the plane were evacuated and re-screened through security. One passenger said the cabin was checked by security, which Johnson said is normal in cases like this.
The passengers who failed to follow instructions were not on board when the diverted flight left Chicago for Portland, Johnson said. He couldn't say whether they were detained or prohibited from boarding the plane.
Johnson said an unrelated passenger was ill, which may have exacerbated the situation.
The flight left Chicago for Portland at around 9 p.m. PST and landed about 1 a.m.
Situations like this one are "not common, but not unusual," Johnson said. The other passengers whose flying experiences were delayed will be contacted by the company's customer relations department.
