Police make eight airport arrests
Eight people were today arrested at airports in New York, one of them for posing as a pilot.
Police in New York detained a series of people at John F Kennedy airport, America’s busiest international terminal, and La Guardia airport, which deals with domestic departures.
One of them was found to be in a possession of a false pilot’s identification, while there was no confirmation of what the other people were arrested for, it was reported.
The men were taken into custody after all three of New York’s airports were closed just hours after they had opened again for business following Tuesday’s complete shutdown of air travel.
They were detained by Justice Department officials and local police and a spokesman said they ‘‘met the profile’’ of those suspected to have been involved in the attacks.
It was unclear whether they were trying to board a flight at the airport.
They are the latest to be taken into custody for questioning by federal agents as part of the massive probe into the attacks, which so far is looking into 2,000 leads given by the public and which involves more than 5,000 FBI agents alone.
It is the first time detentions made in the course of the probe have been described as ‘‘arrests’’ by police, a crucial legal difference and a sign that there is a belief they were engaged in some kind of crime.
The arrests came as flights in the country resumed on a severely restricted basis.
Most of the planes in the air were those which had been grounded on Tuesday morning as a complete ban on flights was put in place following the suicide attacks on New York and Washington.
Beefed-up security measures had been put into place across the country, including bans on passengers without luggage going straight to departure gates, off-airport check-ins and the carrying of knives, even plastic ones.
Flights into America by non-American airlines remain banned and armed air marshals have been placed in airports
