'Pyrotechnic device' found on domestic flight

December 28, 2009 4:51 p.m. EST
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TRAVEL/12/28/new.york.explosive.onboard/index.html

New York (CNN) -- A man was questioned by the FBI after he was discovered to have taken a "pyrotechnic device" onto an airline flight from Baltimore, Maryland, to New York City, FBI spokesman Richard Kolko told CNN Monday.

The incident comes in a period of heightened alert on airlines, following what authorities describe as a failed plot to detonate an explosive device on an international flight into the United States on Christmas Day.

Authorities found that Thomas Ouellette, 67, of Bonita Springs, Florida, brought the pyrotechnic device onto the flight that landed at LaGuardia Airport Sunday night and interviewed him, Kolko said. The device was placed in evidence, and Ouellette was issued a federal summons to appear in federal court, Kolko said.

Robert Nardoza public affairs officer with the U.S. attorney's office for the Eastern District of New York, said Monday that no court date had been set for Ouellette, and that the office had no further comment on the case.

__._,_.___