Frontier Airlines Flight 623: Not Terrorists, Not Sexual Encounter

The FBI has released three passengers who were the focus of a security scare on a Frontier Airlines flight on Sunday, the day America paused in memorial of the nearly 3,000 who died in terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

They three passengers were not terrorists, and they were not involved in a sexual encounter in flight, the FBI said. The passengers were just victims of the day, according to the FBI.

The Frontier Airlines Flight 623 was from Denver to Detroit on Sunday, and the two men and a woman were sitting on the same row. Crew members reported the three as exhibiting suspicious behavior, according to reports, after one of the two men said he felt sick and went to the bathroom while the plane was in flight.

Near the same time, one of the other passengers of the three stood up and reportedly went to the bathroom, raising flight crew suspicions. The Associated Press reports that the flight crew reported that two people were spending an extraordinary long time in the plane's restroom.

Authorities were notified and NORAD alerted F-16 fighter jets to shadow the Frontier flight until landing at Detroit's Metropolitan Airport. The plane was taxied to a location away from the terminal and swept for explosives and the three passengers in suspicion were taken from the plane in handcuffs, the AP reported.

Questioning from the FBI revealed, however, that the men were not in the bathroom at the same time, while the woman never left her seat on the plane. The FBI said Monday the three passengers were very cooperative with authorities, and that no charges were filed against them.

An FBI spokesperson in Detroit said the passengers were only using the bathroom on the flight and that reports which have reached the Internet Monday about a possible sexual encounter on the plane in air are false, the Detroit Free Press reported Monday.

They're victims of circumstance and victims of the day, said Sandra Berchtold, the FBI spokeswoman.

NORAD also scrambled tow F-16 jets to escort an American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to New York on Sunday, during 9/11 memorial events after three passengers made repeated trips to the bathroom but that incident was not through to be terrorist related either, according to an AP report.