FBI: Passenger appeared intoxicated, needed help onto plane

Anil Uskanli, who has a Turkish passport, didn't have any checked or carry-on luggage for Friday's American Airlines flight, a criminal complaint filed in federal court said.

Flight attendants feared the laptop contained explosives, the complaint said, and two fighter jets were summoned to escort the plane to Hawaii.

"If he was a danger, we would not have ever let him go," he said.

Because he had walked into the restricted area at the airport and he was determined to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol, crew members helped him to the plane using a wheelchair, the complaint said.

An American Airlines spokesman said, however, that it was Uskanli who requested the wheelchair at the ticket counter, then went through security and on to the gate for the flight.

Uskanli put the laptop on the drink cart, the complaint said, which scared flight attendants because they are aware "that laptop computers potentially pose a new threat to airplane security because they may contain explosives that are undetected by airport screening measures."