Mom arrested after FBI orders Beijing-bound flight back to Washington

WASHINGTON, Sept. 5 (UPI) -- A woman was arrested after her child's father reported she was trying to take their son to China and the FBI ordered her Beijing-bound plane back to Washington.

United Airlines Flight 897 returned to Dulles International Airport about 5 hours after it departed shortly after noon Thursday. The FBI said the woman was charged with "international parental kidnapping."

The woman's mother was also removed from the plane, although she was not arrested. The boy was put in his father's care.

Lane Bailey told CBS News he and other passengers were originally told the plane was having mechanical problems. The plane was about to enter Canadian air space.

"After they left, the pilot came back on and said that he deliberately mislead us, he thought that, in his judgment that it was the best thing to do, given the circumstances of potential abduction that that's the reason we had diverted," Bailey said.

The plane left for Beijing a second time shortly before 8 p.m.