HAARLEM, Netherlands -- Prosecutors said yesterday they found no evidence of a terrorist threat aboard a
The men, all Indian nationals, had aroused suspicions on Flight NW0042 to Mumbai because they had a large number of cell phones, laptop computers, and hard drives, and they refused to follow the crew's instructions, prosecutors said.
The pilot of the DC-10 radioed for help after takeoff Wednesday, and the plane was escorted back to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport by two Dutch fighter jets.
US air marshals on the flight also were suspicious of the men, US officials and passengers said.
``A thorough investigation of the cell phones in the plane found that the phones were not manipulated and no explosives were found on board the plane," said a statement from the prosecutor's office in Haarlem, which has jurisdiction over the airport.
``From the statements of the suspects and the witnesses, no evidence could be brought forward that these men were about to commit an act of violence," the statement said.
The incident reflected the jitters that persist in the airline industry in the two weeks since British police revealed an alleged plot to blow up US-bound airliners using bombs crafted from ordinary consumer goods.
Prosecution spokesman Ed Hartjes said the electronic equipment the suspects possessed could have been enough to trigger an explosion, and he defended the flight crew's response. ``This was a correct reaction under the circumstances," he said.
Passengers on the plane went to Mumbai from Amsterdam yesterday in four different flights. They described the men as between 25 and 35 years old and speaking Urdu, the language commonly spoken in Pakistan and by many of India's Muslims. Some had beards, and some wore a shalwar kameez, a long shirt and baggy pants commonly worn by South Asian Muslims.
The Algemeen Dagblad newspaper quoted an unidentified Dutch businessman as saying the suspects were walking up and down the aisle after takeoff.
``I saw the air marshals walking, and then you know something's wrong," it quoted him as saying.
Nitin Patel of Boston, who sat behind the men, told the paper: ``I don't know how close we were, but my gut tells me these people wanted to hijack the airplane."
The mass-circulation De Telegraaf reported that passenger Sarat Menon quoted the men as saying they were returning from a vacation in Tobago.
