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Two passengers on diverted jet face charges

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Federal prosecutors filed charges Thursday against two airline passengers a day after they got into a dispute with flight attendants over the use of an airliner washroom.

The dispute prompted the pilot of a Memphis-to-Las Vegas flight to cut the flight short and land at Fort Smith, Arkansas, amid the heightened tension of the September 11 anniversary Wednesday.

Gurdeep Singh Wander and Harinder Pal Singh were scheduled to appear in federal court in Fort Smith late Thursday.

The a criminal complaint charges them with interference with flight crew members and attendants on Northwest Airlines Flight 979. If found guilty, they could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.

The dispute erupted when Wander locked himself in the washroom for what a flight attendant thought was an unusually long time, then repeatedly refused to leave, according to the complaint.

After he finally came out, Singh insisted he had to use the same washroom used by Wander, the complaint said.

That was enough to raise the suspicions of flight attendant Deborah Summers.

Summers told the FBI that in her training she learned than an explosive device might be assembled from components separate individuals might be able to carry through airport screening points, the complaint said.

She also said she was intimidated by the men.

According to the complaint, at one point while he was in the washroom as the flight attendant tried to get him to come out, Wander opened the door, revealing he had taken his shirt off and was shaving.

The complaint -- which makes no suggestion that the men intended harm to the plane or its passengers -- said Singh and Wander were on the final leg of what had become a two-day journey from New York through Minneapolis and Memphis to Las Vegas.

Because the incident occurred amid heightened alert on the anniversary of last year's terrorist hijackings, the decision to divert the Airbus A-320 with 94 passengers and five crew members attracted wide public attention.