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A passenger whose erratic behavior prompted pilots to make an emergency landing at La Guardia airport on Saturday afternoon was not charged after authorities determined he “did not utter any verbal threat “and was not carrying a suspicious object, said a spokesperson for the port authority. of New York and New Jersey said.
The man, who has not been identified by the Port Authority Police Department, was briefly detained and questioned by authorities, including the FBI, and then released, spokesman Thomas Topousis said on Sunday.
“The port authority police department determined there was no crime,” Topousis said in a statement on Sunday.
Shortly before 3 p.m. on Saturday, a pilot of the plane, which was a Republic Airways plane operating as US flight 4817, told workers at a control tower at La Guardia airport that he ” declared an emergency, “according to a recording posted on LiveATC.net.
“We have a situation where a person, a suspicious person, has an object that looks like an explosive device,” the pilot said, according to the recording.
The pilot then announced that he was going to land. “We plan to close the runway and then we plan to evacuate,” he said, according to the recording.
The pilot later said the crew members “don’t know what this person has”, adding: “Everyone is scared on this plane”.
After the plane landed, firefighters and police converged on the plane, which had traveled from Indianapolis with about 78 passengers on board.
The passengers exited the plane safely, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Steve Kulm said.
Republic Airways spokesperson Jon Austin said on Saturday that an emergency had been declared in response to unspecified passenger behavior towards the end of the flight.
A video Taken on the ground showed emergency responders surrounding a man who was prone as passengers stood nearby. In another video, evacuated passengers are invited to “take a step back” to leave space for responders and humans.
A passenger on the flight described a pandemonium scene after the plane landed. Fawad Khuja, who was seated in the fourth row, said on Saturday that the plane braked shortly after landing and passengers behind him started screaming to get off the plane immediately.
He heard people say that a man had “a suspicious device”.
“People were panicking and being pushed to the ground,” he said. “The slide opened and I jumped. People were sliding and rolling to the ground. It was crazy.”
Alyssa Lukpat and Precious fondren contributed reports.
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