18 arrested on ANZ flight at LHR.

[Hot Wings]

18 middle-eastern men have been taken into custody at LHR this afternoon. They were onboard the ANZ flight from LAX to LHR. The pax were due to transit LHR on their way to Bahrain and Tripoli. Apparently, they had been acting very suspiciously during the flight - especially during the let down into LHR!

On arrival, the aircraft parked at a remote bay and was boarded by a large number of police. ANZ were warned in July of a possible "mob attack" by Al Qaeda fanatics using broken bottles, etc...

[Onions]

Where has this information come from as there is nothing about this on the BBC or SKY websites?

[Simon Montague]

Air New Zealand say male passenger refused to stop using mobile phone while flight was approaching or over UK and had it removed by in-flight services director, who then alerted captain.
Captain alerted police who met aircraft (ANZ say they often use a remote stand, this was not a special airrangement).
ANZ say police took away man plus about six other witnesses for questioning, all were then let go.
Metropolitan Police version concurs, they say no arrest made.
And, er, that appears to be it...

[Hot Wings]

So you've spoken to the crew then because that's not their version of events. Still, we wouldn't want the public to start getting scared would we?

[A120]

The crew were concerned about the behaviour of a number of pax, all of a similar ethnic appearance.

1 Pax was seen with a mobile phone, but no one actually saw him using it.

Lots of different issues caused the crew some alarm, which taken in isolation, you wouldn’t even think about. Capt decided to call ahead and ask for the flight to be met by police.

No one was arrested, although a large number of pax were spoken to in respect of the concerns of the crew. No one has done anything wrong.

Crews are asked to remain vigilant and it is easy to get paranoid. Call was made in good faith, but there is no evidence that anyone has done anything wrong, or was even considering it.