Mid-Air Security Scare

[Sniff]

This won't help the current situation. From Sky News


Mid-Air Security Scare
Updated: 16:39, Wednesday August 16, 2006

A flight from London to Washington has been diverted to Boston after a mid-air security scare.

A female passenger on United Flight 923 was reportedly found carrying a screwdriver, vaseline and matches - and a note about terror group al Qaeda.

A United spokesman said a passenger had been spotted engaging in some 'suspicious' activity.

A US government official told CNN the woman had two notes, one in English mentioning al Qaeda and another in Arabic.

She was being questioned by the FBI, the network said.

Local news channel WHDH claimed the woman had had to be tied up and kept at the back of the plane.

However, other reports said the woman had simply become hysterical after suffering from claustrophobia.


A sniffer dog at work The plane, which was carrying 182 passengers and 12 crew members, was escorted to Boston's Logan International Airport by fighter jets.

State Police took control of the plane after it landed.

All the passengers have been taken off the plane and their carry-on luggage is being checked by sniffer dogs on the runway.

A United Airlines spokesman said the captain had declared a security emergency.

'There was an altercation with at least one female passenger,' he said.

'The plane is safely on the ground in Boston. The crew assessed the situation and determined that a divert was the appropriate course of action.'

The incident comes days after British authorities claimed to have foiled a terror plot to blow up trans-Atlantic flights from London to the US.

[ellie]

Well at least it shows the US are spot on with the security of their passengers. Expect there is more than meets the eye to this story. Am afraid that there will be certain lunatics who will take advantage of the current situation for whatever reason.

It certainly doesn't put me off. We are looking for flights to go and visit our villa in September and we can't wait!

[ShirleyD]

Sounds like the 60 year old woman just had a panic attack....the story about the vaseline was apparently misreported, but she may have had some hand cream.

A woman passenger has been arrested after a flight from London to Washington was diverted to Boston because of an on-board disturbance.
Transport officials said the woman, who is about 60 years old, was held in connection with a reported confrontation with the flight crew.

She was carrying hand cream - a banned item - and matches on board the United Airlines flight.

The aircraft was escorted into Logan airport by two jet fighters.

Reports that the woman was carrying a screwdriver and a note referring to al-Qaeda have been denied.

Security officials at Boston's Logan International airport laid all of the luggage from the plane out on the runway and checked every item with sniffer dogs.

'Claustrophobic'

United Flight 923 from Heathrow Airport, with 182 passengers on board, was originally bound for Washington DC's Dulles Airport.


It landed at Logan at about 1020 local time (1420 GMT).

Nenette Day, a spokeswoman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Boston, said the woman passenger was apparently claustrophobic and had become disruptive on the flight.

"This isn't just an 'I want another drink kind of thing,' it was a disruption that caused them to divert the plane," she said.

"There are no known links to terrorism regarding this event at this time," Christopher White, a Transportation Security Administration spokesman said.

The incident comes almost one week after an alleged bomb plot targeting UK flights to the US was uncovered by British intelligence officers.

[Sniff]

Agreed, any story of this kind will probably get blown up out of all proportion at the moment. But the fact she was carrying something she should not have been able to get on board (handcream) and the story of a 12-year old boy managing to board a Monarch aircraft without ticket or passport, does get me a bit concerned.

[floridadreamvilla.co.uk]

Is the forum here to promote vacationing in Florida or to try and scare anyone off travelling on an aircraft at all with any old rumours and 10th hand stories?

I just don't see the relevance of this post to anything.

For what it's worth I personally think she had an attack of claustrophobia and see quite a bit of creative journalism here [msnmad].

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Sniff
Agreed, any story of this kind will probably get blown up out of all proportion at the moment. But the fact she was carrying something she should not have been able to get on board (handcream) and the story of a 12-year old boy managing to board a Monarch aircraft without ticket or passport, does get me a bit concerned.



[/quote]

[Sniff]

Isn't the topic of this forum 'Flying'? Isn't this a website about holidaying in USA? Aren't the current security issues concerning flights from the UK to USA the primary news story of the day?

I find it hard to conceive of a topic that is more relevant at the moment. These are not 'any old rumours and 10th hand stories', these are current news stories less than 24-hours old that should concern anyone who has even the smallest interest in travelling by air from the UK. Regardless of whether or not the the woman simply had a panic attack, the fact is a plane full of hundreds of people was diverted in mid-air with an escort of miltary jets.

Yes, this site is primarily intended to promote vacationing in Florida. But to bury our heads in the sand and pretend this is not happening is ridiculous in the extreme. Of course there will be some creative journalism at such times. But that doesn't mean there isn't some basis to these stories. Are you telling me you're happy that an unaccompanied minor seems to have got through 3 levels of security checks and onto a plane without any documentation at all?

As a concerned citizens with a vested personal interest in seeing people's confidence in flying to America boosted, and passenger numbers increase not decrease, I think this topic is wholly relevant to everything on this website.

[floridadreamvilla.co.uk]

I don't agree.

[jackie greaves]

Well I got a two week booking confirmed yesterday from an English family, so it hasn't put them off.[clap][clap][clap]

[alastair]

This was a case of creative reporting without waiting for the facts. The original post reported that "A female passenger on United Flight 923 was reportedly found carrying a screwdriver, vaseline and matches - and a note about terror group al Qaeda". The only correct fact here is that she was carrying matches, which she was quite entitled to do.

As to the Monarch incident, the boy got through passport control and security, but Monarch's pre-boarding checks picked him up and he did not board the aircraft.