Diplomat on Denver flight to be sent back to Qatar, U.S. says

By Karen DeYoung and Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 9, 2010

Mohammed al-Madadi boarded a flight from Washington to Denver on Wednesday afternoon, a junior diplomat from Qatar on a routine assignment to visit a Qatari citizen in a U.S. prison. United Airlines Flight 663 passed uneventfully until Madadi stepped out of the bathroom.

A flight attendant smelled smoke and confronted Madadi, 27, who joked that he "was trying to light my shoes on fire" to mask the smell of the bathroom before proceeding to his seat, U.S. law enforcement officials said. The attendant challenged Madadi again, one of the officials said, and notified the air marshals on the plane when he declined a request to hand over his lighter.

That is when Madadi's business trip to Denver started to become a minor international incident.

The marshals talked to Madadi briefly, confined him to his seat, and activated a national alert system for all planes in flight through the pilot. Fighter jets were scrambled, and President Obama was warned about a possible terrorist threat.

(More here.)