Christmas ornament diverts Fla. flight

Orlando Sentinel

ORLANDO, Fla. — An Orlando, Fla.-bound Northwest Airlines flight from Detroit was diverted to Nashville, Tenn., on Friday morning after a suspicious item was discovered aboard the plane. The item: a Christmas ornament.

“A suspicious item was found, and out of an abundance of caution, the pilot decided to divert to Nashville,” said Delta Air Lines spokesman Carlos Santos, whose company recently acquired Northwest. “Fortunately it turned out to be a harmless article.”

The flight landed in Nashville, and passengers got off the plane before the item was identified as a harmless ornament, Santos said.

Santos could not say Friday what exactly led to the “abundance of caution.” He did not describe what the ornament looked like.

“I have not seen it,” he said.

Northwest Flight 2364 had 75 passengers and five crew members.

The diversion and landing came about 8:30 a.m., Delta said, about 90 minutes after its departure from Detroit. Passengers reboarded the flight about 10:30 a.m. in Nashville. The plane eventually landed at Orlando International Airport before 1 p.m., an airport spokesman said, about three hours later than scheduled.

The incident came one week after a man flying from Nigeria to Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and then to the United States on a Northwest flight tried to ignite an explosive as the plane prepared to land in Detroit.

Santos could not say whether that incident, which has received international attention and renewed concerns about air travel, influenced the decision of the pilot involved in Friday’s diverted flight.

The diversion was made “to ensure passenger safety,” he said.

Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Ann Davis said the flight was diverted and its passengers screened on the ground. “Ultimately, the item proved innocuous,” Davis said.

Davis could not describe the item or give the reason the decision was made to divert the flight.

“They are the ones making the assessment on that aircraft,” Davis said. The motivation for diverting the plane, she said, “falls with the airline.”

Since the Detroit episode, the TSA Web site says the agency is encouraging passengers “to remain observant and aware of their surroundings and report any suspicious behavior or activity.”

to law enforcement officials.”

But several of Flight 2364’s passengers interviewed Friday said they noticed no unusual behavior aboard the plane before it was diverted.

Passengers Lindsay Vandenbroeck, 22, and Lauren Cockels, 18, students at Michigan State University, said an initial announcement about the suspicious item was unnerving, but they didn’t mind the inconvenience or the delay in the end.

“I’m glad they did it, because I’d rather play it safe than sorry ... and they gave us free lunch,” Vandenbroeck said after collecting her luggage at OIA.

Several passengers said neither the flight crew nor airline officials told passengers what concerned them. Passengers were taken to a remote part of Nashville International Airport, where they were searched. The plane, an Airbus 320, also was searched by dogs.

“The search is done by government authorities, not by Delta,” Santos said.

The most troubling part for the passengers was when they first learned about the flight being diverted, but were left wondering exactly why.

“Yeah, it was kind of scary,” Cockels said.

“They didn’t tell us (why),” said Vandenbroeck. “They just said we’re going to have an emergency landing.”

“They never told us what it was, but everyone asked,” said Michaela Belanger, 25, of Windsor, Ontario. “They said there’s a suspicious object and not to be concerned. They handled it very well.”

Passengers were told to take only their phones and IDs when they deplaned in Nashville, they said.

“They don’t want to take any risks,” she said. “I felt unsafe on the plane (after hearing about the suspicious item). I wouldn’t have wanted to stay on the plane that whole time. I felt more reassured (being diverted).”

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