PORTLAND, Ore. -- A passenger's threatening behavior forced a plane to turn around and head back to Portland Wednesday.
The Maui-bound Hawaiian Airlines plane was turned around during the flight and landed safely at PDX.
Transportation Security Administration officials said in a statement that "the captain made a decision to return the plane to Portland due to a suspicious passenger who made threatening remarks and refused to store his carry-on bag."
The FBI said the passenger was a 56-year-old Salem man. He was not charged and the case was turned over to the U.S. Attorney's office.
Officials with the Portland Air National Guard Base said two fighter jets were scrambled at 1 p.m. to escort the plane down.
Hawaiian Airlines said Flight 39 left for Maui from PDX at 10:10 a.m. and was an hour-and-a-half into its direct flight when the crew turned the plane around and brought the plane citing issues with two passengers.
The two were questioned by Port of Portland police and were cooperating. Crews searched the plane with several resources including K9s. Officials said no weapons or explosives were found. According to the FBI, there was no link to terrorist activity.
Crews said they were initially concerned about the two passengers' behavior.
Roman Ozeruga's sister Inna was on the plane. He told KGW.com she saw the man and a woman taken off the plane after they landed. The passengers were told not to speak to one another for about 45 minutes while crews searched the plane and the man's belongings.
He says the plane, according to his sister, was held away from the gates as all this happened. He did not know how close his sister was sitting to the man in question. She also told him some passengers decided to deplane and not go to Hawaii.
The flight took off back to Maui around 2:40 p.m.
The FBI and local police were questioning the passenger taken off the plane.
(KGW Reporter Scott Burton contributed to this report)
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