This all over, in the
BBC and
CNN now. A bit dramatic, but better safe than sorry. On the other hand, if we had F16's accompany us every time someone was smoking, we would be escourted on almost every flight!
A Qatari diplomat has been detained after an incident on a flight from Washington's Reagan airport to Denver.
Two F-16 jets were scrambled to intercept the United Airlines plane and escort it to land safely at Denver airport, US officials said.
Initial reports said the man, who has not been named, had tried to set fire to his shoes.
But officials later said no explosives were found and he had apparently been trying to smoke in a plane toilet.
When confronted, the man "made a joke about it", which further alarmed people on board the flight, said an unnamed official quoted by the Associated Press news agency.
'Mistake'
The man was later identified as a Qatari diplomat stationed at the country's Washington embassy.
In a statement, Qatar's ambassador to the US, Ali Bin Fahad al-Hajri, said the diplomat "was certainly not engaged in any threatening activity", and "facts will reveal that this was all a mistake".
The plane, with more than 160 passengers and crew on board, arrived at Denver International Airport, where TV footage showed it surrounded by security vehicles.
The US Transportation Security Administration said it responded to "an incident on board United Airlines flight 663 [from Washington to Denver] after Federal Air Marshals responded to a passenger causing a disturbance on board the aircraft".
"Law enforcement and TSA responded to the scene and the passenger is currently being interviewed by law enforcement."
The incident came just months after a Nigerian man allegedly tried to detonate a bomb on a passenger jet arriving in the US.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, was overpowered by passengers and crew shortly before the Northwest Airlines plane landed in Detroit from Amsterdam on 24 December. He has been charged with attempting to destroy a plane.
In 2001, Richard Reid, a British citizen, attempted to blow up a transatlantic passenger jet carrying 197 people with explosives hidden in his shoes.