Two men were being questioned today over a possible attempt to test airline security after suspicious items were found in their luggage.
The pair were arrested at Amsterdam airport after a mobile phone taped to a medicine bottle and a knife and box cutter were discovered in their suitcases.
They had arrived on a United Airlines flight from Chicago, where their decision to change their flight plans raised questions, officials said.
Both of them were being held at the airport for questioning, but neither has been charged with any offence in the Netherlands, said a spokesman for the national prosecutor’s office.
One man was questioned as he went through security in Alabama on his way to Chicago.
He said he was carrying a lot of cash. Screeners found $7,000 dollars on him, but he was not breaking any law by carrying that much money.
Security also found multiple mobile phones taped together and multiple watches taped together in his checked baggage.
The man was supposed to fly from Chicago to Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia, and then on to Amsterdam. But when he got to Chicago, he changed his travel plans to take a direct flight to Amsterdam.
The second man also changed his travel plans in Chicago to take a direct flight to Amsterdam, raising suspicion among US officials. Federal Air marshals were on the flight from Chicago to Amsterdam, a law enforcement official said.
A Homeland Security spokeswoman said once officials found suspicious items in luggage associated with two passengers on Sunday night’s flight, they notified the Dutch authorities.
“The items were not deemed to be dangerous in and of themselves,” she said.
She would not identify the passengers.
It is not illegal to carry knives or taped mobile phones and watches in checked baggage.
PA