The passenger from Oregon who allegedly disrupted a Hawaiian Airlines flight to Maui on Wednesday is now facing a federal criminal charge of interfering with a crew member.

The U.S. attorney's office in Oregon filed the charge yesterday as another Hawaiian Airlines flight had to be diverted because of an incident involving disruptive passengers, a man and a woman, on the plane.

Yesterday's flight from Las Vegas to Honolulu stopped in Los Angeles, where the man was removed from the jet, Hawaiian Airlines spokesman Keoni Wagner said.

Los Angeles airport police Sgt. Jim Holcomb said the man was interviewed and released after the woman declined to press charges. He did not know the exact nature of the disruption or if the passengers knew each other.

The flight arrived in Honolulu three hours late.

  Disruptive passengers delay two Hawaii flights

 

Unruly airline passengers have caused two flights to Hawaii to be diverted and delayed this week.

[ Watch ]

 

It was the second time this week a flight to Hawaii had to change course because of an passenger incident in the air.

On Wednesday, a Maui-bound Hawaiian Airlines flight from Portland, Ore., was turned around and escorted by two F-15 military fighters because of a passenger who was unhappy he couldn't store a carry-on bag under his seat.

In court documents filed yesterday, an FBI agent said 56-year-old Joseph Hedlund Johnson wrote comments that worried a Hawaiian Airlines pilot enough to turn the jet around and head back to Portland.

The pilot grew concerned during the Wednesday flight because Johnson, of Salem, Ore., wrote about death and crashing on a comment card, the affidavit said.

The agent says Johnson also drew suspicion by holding his carry-on bag closely and saying he didn't want to stow it where he couldn't get to it.

“;The captain stated that he absolutely felt threatened by the contents of the card, especially when he considered Johnson's earlier suspicious behavior with his bag,”; the affidavit said.

Johnson was not jailed. He is expected to appear in court Monday.

The incidents come amid heightened concern over airline security after a Nigerian man allegedly tried to blow up a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines plane on Christmas Day.

Also yesterday, two F-16s were launched at 11:44 a.m. to catch up with AirTran Airways Flight 39 from Atlanta to San Francisco after a report that an intoxicated passenger had locked himself in a bathroom, the Colorado-based North American Aerospace Defense Command said.

The jets arrived over Colorado Springs Airport as the captain—who AirTran said had decided to divert the plane—landed there around noon, NORAD spokeswoman Stacey Knott said.

Colorado Springs police detained the passenger, who allegedly refused to follow flight crew instructions to take his seat before locking himself in a lavatory. Canine teams searched the airplane, and the flight was cleared to continue to San Francisco.

And in London late yesterday, police arrested three passengers after removing them from a jetliner bound for Dubai. Officials described it only as a security incident.