U.S. bars KLM flight entry into airspace
Names of 2 passengers appear on 'no-fly' terrorist list
(CNN) -- U.S. authorities refused to allow a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines 747 to fly over the United States, officials said Sunday.
Flight 685 from Amsterdam to Mexico City was denied permission to fly south across the Canada-U.S. border on Friday because the names of two passengers aboard were included on a U.S. "no-fly" terrorist watch list, KLM spokesman Bart Koster said.
The flight, carrying 278 passengers, returned to Amsterdam, Koster said. He told The Associated Press that on Saturday, a flight without the two listed passengers departed Amsterdam and arrived in Mexico City.
"I hope this was a once-in-a-lifetime incident," Koster said. "It's, of course, very frustrating for passengers and crew to be more than 10, 11 hours in the air, to come back where you departed."
The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI decided to bar the flight because of security concerns involving certain passengers, said Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Andrea McCauley. She would not elaborate.
U.S. anti-terrorism laws require airlines to provide passenger manifests to the U.S. government before their planes enter U.S. airspace.
Koster said the two listed passengers -- who he said were not Dutch citizens -- returned to their home countries. Citing privacy concerns, Koster wouldn't disclose any other information about the two passengers.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
