NORFOLK, Va. ( WAVY ) — A Virginia man traveling with his daughter and her friend was profiled as a possible human trafficker by Southwest Airlines and Norfolk International Airport police as he returned home early last week.
John Kerrigan, of Virginia Beach, was flying with his daughter, 15, and her 16-year-old friend aboard Southwest Flight 4345 from Denver, on the final leg of their Oct. 21 trip back from Las Vegas.
The flight lasted about three and a half hours, and when Kerrigan went to the restroom, the flight attendant asked the girls some peculiar questions.
“‘She keeps asking if we’re alright and if we know you,’” Kerrigan remembered his daughter telling him. “And I said it seemed strange.”
An airport spokesman confirmed Wednesday that Southwest called airport police during the flight, for suspicion of human trafficking, and that Kerrigan was their person of interest.
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The plane arrived at the gate in Norfolk, but the passengers were told to remain seated. Then three airport officers got on and walked to the rear row, toward Kerrigan and the girls.