Military jets safely escort NYC, Detroit flights

(AP) NEW YORK — Fighter jets were scrambled to escort two commercial flights into New York City and Detroit “out of an abundance of caution” after crews reported suspicious activity on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, officials said.

The bathroom use by some passengers aroused the suspicion Sunday, but all were released after being questioned by authorities on the ground.

On an American Airlines flight from Los Angeles, three passengers who made repeated trips to the bathroom were cleared after the plane safely landed at New York’s Kennedy Airport.

Earlier, on a Denver-to-Detroit Frontier Airlines flight, the crew reported that two people were spending “an extraordinarily long time” in a bathroom, Frontier spokesman Peter Kowalchuck said. Police detained three passengers at Detroit’s Metropolitan Airport, but they also were eventually released.