Man arrested in flight for lighting batteries

Scheduled to be charged by U.S. Attorney's office

SALT LAKE CITY (CNN) -- A man aboard an American Airlines flight was arrested Tuesday after he allegedly tried to light a couple of batteries with a cigarette lighter during the flight, authorities said.

Flight 781 -- carrying 114 people from Chicago to San Francisco -- was diverted to Salt Lake City after flight attendants noticed the passenger "trying to warm up a couple AA-batteries" with his lighter, said George Dougherty, an FBI special agent in Salt Lake City.

"I don't think anybody knew what he was doing," Dougherty said.

The man apparently said he was trying to recharge the batteries by lighting them.

"I don't know if the guy thought it was funny," Dougherty said. "But given the situation since 9/11, everything is taken a lot more seriously."

"Unfortunately for him, this resulted in him being jailed," Dougherty told CNN.

The man, whose name was not immediately released, is to be charged by the U.S. Attorney's Office Wednesday with one federal count of interference with a flight crew by intimidation, Dougherty said.

He said the passenger lives in California but was born in Belarus. The man was traveling with a companion who was detained and questioned but is not expected to be charged.

Even if the incident was meant as a prank, Dougherty said it was in poor taste in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

"It's one of those things that's not funny anymore," he said. "The flight crew found it disturbing enough to re-route the flight."

American Airlines spokeswoman Sonja Whitemon said the plane was carrying 108 passengers and six crew members when it was diverted to Salt Lake City International Airport.

The plane landed at 1:39 p.m. and "law enforcement took it from there," Whitemon said.

Whitemon said she was not sure if the passenger and his companion were restrained during the flight, adding that she had "no reason to believe that they were."

Dougherty also said he was unsure of what transpired on the plane. "I don't know if the flight crew detained him," he said.

The flight continued on to San Francisco, leaving Salt Lake City about two hours after it was diverted, Whitemon said.