A French citizen whose "suspicious behavior" during a flight from Paris to Charlotte, N.C., led to a US Airways jet getting diverted to Bangor, Maine, is now under arrest, one official said.
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, told ABC News today that the passenger, an unidentified woman born in Cameroon and traveling alone for a 10-day trip to the U.S., had passed a note to the flight crew saying that she had a surgically implanted device in her.
King said that when doctors examined the woman, they found no signs of recent scars. He said she had no checked baggage.
Another congressional official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the note had been written in French and did not mention a bomb.
Alexa Young, a 20-year-old student at Campbellsville University in Kentucky, told ABC News today that she was on her way back from a mission in Africa and had been seated about five rows in front of the woman.
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Watch Video "I was sleeping in and out but we did see her keep going to the bathroom," Young said. "She was holding, like, her stomach and apparently she had like a note that said she had an explosive planted inside of her."
Young said the flight crew had asked several times over the intercom whether a doctor was onboard. She said the pilot then said the plane would have to land in Maine because it was low on fuel.
Andrew Christie of US Airways confirmed to ABC News that Flight 787 with 179 passengers and nine crew members had been diverted around noon to Bangor International Airport because of a "security issue."
According to the Transportation Security Administration, the flight was diverted "out of an abundance of caution."
John Cornello, the spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command, told ABC News that it had launched two f-15s to intercept the US Airways aircraft.
A Bangor airport official said the passengers were fine and would eventually continue their flight to Charlotte on the same plane.
Young told ABC News that once the plane had landed, passengers were surprised to see the police board and remove the woman.
"We didn't know what was going on," she said. "I thought she probably had like some drugs on the plane but was it just like crazy. I was pretty shocked."
Young said after police and the passenger left, the pilot apologized over the intercom for misleading the passengers about the fuel shortage. She said everyone was shocked.
"They didn't scream or anything cause I think she was already off the plane but they, you know, jaws dropped," she said.
ABC News' Lisa Stark contributed to this story.
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