Kuwait: A passenger carrying a Jordanian passport was detained and the luggage of all those on board of an Amman-bound plane was checked following concerns about a terror group affiliation.
Kuwait Airways said it had re-confirmed the search, saying in a statement on Saturday that the luggage pieces of all passengers on flight 561 bound for Jordan were re-inspected after a rowdy passenger screamed his head off in a threatening manner.
“This caused a disturbance among the passengers on the plane requiring security personnel to deal with the offender,” the statement, carried by Kuwait News Agency (Kuna), said.
In its eagerness for the safety of the passengers and for carrying out normal procedure in such cases, the company “ran a re-inspection check on all passenger luggage while summoning airport security as an extra cautionary measure”, the company said.
It added that “the flight in question departed after that momentary tumult to its prescribed destination”.
In its statement, the interior ministry stressed that “security preparedness may entail taking precautionary measures at the airport, such as asking passengers to deplane and re-inspecting luggage and the aircraft”.
Such precautionary measures, which are standard procedure at all airports, are carried out to ensure the safe take-off and landing of all planes as well as the safety of all passengers on board, the statement said.
Brigadier Adel Al Hashash, the ministry’s director of public relations and media, said that the security personnel did not receive any call regarding the existence of a bomb on a Kuwait Airways plane bound for Jordan.
On Sunday, Kuwaiti daily Al Rai reported that the passenger who was deplaned was taken to the airport security authority for questioning.
“The passenger is a Palestinian with a Jordanian passport and he was born in Bethlehem in 1983,” a security source told the daily.
“He was not a resident of Kuwait and was on transit from Pakistan to Jordan. As the passengers were boarding, the traveler asked a steward ‘Are you a Muslim? We must liberate Palestine and eliminate infidels’. The steward informed the pilot about the passenger’s attitude and he ordered his deplaning along his luggage pieces, which were 12,” the source added.
