BANGOR – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice generated buzz among employees at Bangor International Airport on Friday afternoon when her airplane stopped to refuel, although she reportedly never left the plane.

Airport officials would not confirm Rice’s presence, but the U.S. Department of State verified Friday afternoon that she stopped at BIA.

Word at the airport was that Rice was on her way to Washington, D.C., after concluding a trip to Brussels, Belgium, and she remained on the plane throughout the stop in Bangor.

A Boeing 757 marked “United States of America” was parked near the international arrivals building for about two hours while Secret Service agents in black trench coats stood guard around the plane’s underbelly.

The plane was refueled and deiced before taking off just after 1 p.m.

Rice traveled this week to Germany, Romania, Ukraine and Belgium as part of a five-day diplomatic trip that largely focused on U.S. treatment of detainees.

She has been hounded by questions about reports the CIA maintains secret prisons in Eastern Europe to grill suspected al-Qaida members and uses clandestine flights to move captives to third countries for interrogation.

Rice assured European leaders that the United States would not violate the rights of terror suspects.

“If we find abuses, we will investigate them thoroughly and we will punish them,” she told reporters Thursday.