Two Dutch F-16s on a training mission are diverted to escort a Northwest Airlines flight back to Schiphol, while two US sky marshals take control of the Mumbai-bound DC-10, ordering passengers to remain in their seats and not look round.
The scene appeared set for high drama in the skies over the Netherlands on Wednesday, a fortnight after British intelligence uncovered a plot to blow up 10 aircraft in mid-air. According to Northwest, the flight captain spoke of "suspicious behaviour" when contacting ground control over Germany.
The destination - Mumbai - also raised suspicions. The Indian metropolis has seen repeated terrorist attacks in recent years, culminating in a string of blasts on commuter trains in mid-July that claimed some 180 lives.
Dutch authorities added to the mystery by refusing to provide details, beyond saying they were holding 12 passengers. But some of 149 passengers aboard were more forthcoming on the events that led flight NW0042 to turn round half an hour after take- off at 10.53 am Wednesday.
Sarat Menon, a Dutch-speaking Indian who works in Brussels, said he had chatted to the group, all men, in an airport coffee bar before take-off. They told him they had been on holiday in Tobago.
"Four of them had long beards. They spoke Urdu. They were certainly not highly educated people," he told the daily Telegraaf. Nitin Patel, an Indian who lives in Boston, told the AD newspaper he had the feeling "that these men wanted to hijack the aircraft."
Dutch passengers Kees Hollander and Roy Wiersma said the pilot had told them that they were returning to Schiphol. "Stay calm and don't look back," came the order over the aircraft's address system.
According to other passengers, a mobile phone rang and the group cheered, prompting an anxious response among cabin crew. One of them had a guitar case with him.
The men were reported to have been sending text messages, passing their mobile phones among each other and walking down the aisles before the seat belt light was turned off.
They were also described as of "typically Muslim appearance." Menon described how the sky marshals had taken over. "We were told to sit up straight in our seats, not to get up and not to go to the toilet." But he insisted the situation had remained calm throughout. By noon, an hour after take-off, the flight was back on the ground. Although the Dutch authorities were divulging no details, they appeared to be taking a relaxed view.
A spokesman for the border police said the continued detention of the men should not be misinterpreted. And terrorism expert Edwin Bakker of the Clingendael Institute, the main Dutch conflict and international relations research institute, said he doubted a terrorist attack had been planned. "The group was simply too big for that," he told the Volkskrant daily.
-DPA