Insane! And yes, different from the other arrest discussed here recently.
I would suggest you not only contact an attorney, but also the media immediately. I think the angle that you are an airline employee will appeal to them.
The bottom line is that in our country you can now be arrested and jailed for doing anything "out of the ordinary," even if it is perfectly legal. We have already seen threads about people being detained and questioned by FAMs for simply doing mileage runs, and here we see a similar (though much worse) situation of someone being jailed for carrying a rubber-band ball.