No Terrorist On Diverted Flight

Second Plane In Week To Stop In Maine Because Of No-Fly List

(CBS/AP)  It turns out the FBI isn't interested in the person who caused a flight from Italy to land today in Maine instead of in Boston.

The flight was diverted because a passenger's name matches one on the government's no-fly list. But the FBI now says the man isn't a suspected terrorist.

Alitalia Flight 618 from Milan, Italy, finally landed just before 3 p.m. at Logan International Airport in Boston after its brief stop in Bangor — but not before U.S. officials removed the passenger in question, reports CBS News Correspondent Howard Arenstein.

FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz says the man on Alitalia Flight 618 was questioned but not arrested. She says federal immigration officials are now handling the case.

The passenger's nationality is not yet known.

The Transportation Security Administration is "working with Alitalia to determine how the passenger was allowed to board the aircraft," TSA spokeswoman Yolanda Clark said.

She said there was "no unusual activity on board" that would have alarmed other passengers or the flight crew.

CBS News Correspondent Sabina Castelfranco reports that sources in Italy say the suspicious passenger on board is Algerian. It is unclear how he was allowed on the plane.

It was the second time in less than a week that a Boston-bound European flight was diverted to Bangor. On Thursday, an Air France flight from Paris landed there because someone on board had nearly the same name and birth date as a person on the list of suspected terrorists.

That flight last week continued to Boston after the passenger of interest and three family members were detained by federal immigration officials in Maine. The four were later released and allowed to continue their trip after officials determined the man was not the one on the no-fly list.

The list is reserved for individuals who have known or suspected links to terrorism, or who have been otherwise identified as a threat to aviation, Clark said.

Bangor International Airport has become a stopping-off point for problem flights because it is the last major U.S. airport for jets headed across the Atlantic and the first for incoming flights.