A British Airways airplane heading from London to New York was made to return to London three hours after takeoff when a man on the U.S. no fly list was found to be on the airplane. Flight BA175 returned to Heathrow Airport without incident and authorities say the plane was not in any immediate danger.

The passenger was questioned by British authorities upon his arrival at Heathrow although he has not been arrested as of this time. He apparently was carrying a French passport.

'The flight returned to Heathrow after we received a request from the U.S. authorities saying that a passenger aboard the aircraft was not to be allowed to land in New York,' a British Airways spokesman said. 'We stress that there was no threat to the safety of the aircraft.'

The passengers remaining on the plane were re-screened and the flight was allowed to continue on to Kennedy Airport in New York without further incident.

Presently, the passenger list is only required to be shared with government intelligence agencies after the flight has taken off. Government intelligence officials want to change that policy to prevent future occurrences like this one.

Another reason for the delay in discovering that this passenger was not permitted into the United States was that he was only added to the no fly list in December. Officials did not have the latest update of the list prior to takeoff.

'It really underscores the importance of Homeland Security assuming the responsibility for administering these airline passenger watchlists,' said U.S. Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Yolanda Clark.