[kj] ot - homeophobes - pasted

[fluwdot at earthlink.net]

here it is PREAst76, pasted:


Wires, vials lead to scare in the air
Suspicions force jet to land at O'Hare

By Jon Hilkevitch, Tribune transportation reporter. Tribune staff 
reporters Jennifer Lebovich and John Keilman contributed to this 
report
Published April 27, 2005

A passenger on a cross-country flight Tuesday morning immediately 
tipped off flight attendants after noticing that the man seated 
beside him had odd vials of liquid in his pockets and electrical 
wires running into his coat.

Informed about the situation while the plane cruised about 6 miles 
above the ground en route to San Francisco from New York, the United 
Airlines captain declared an emergency and diverted to the closest 
landing strip that could handle a Boeing 757--O'Hare International 
Airport.

As the plane made an unusually rapid descent, the passengers were 
herded to the front of the cabin and belted into available seats to 
put as much distance as possible between them and the suspicious man 
and his companion.

The plane landed hard at O'Hare at 10:40 a.m. and was met by 
emergency vehicles and teams of heavily armored police officers and 
bomb-sniffing dogs who scrambled aboard.

The vials, it was soon discovered, held a homeopathic herbal lotion 
carried by a Japanese national who calls himself a "healer," 
authorities said. The wires were connected to his portable music 
player.

The incident appears to have been exacerbated by language 
differences.

In a time of heightened concern about terrorism and explosives aboard 
commercial planes, the United crew acted appropriately, security 
officials said Tuesday.

"In the post 9-11 world, passengers, flight attendants and pilots 
will err on the side of safety and security," said Amy von Walter, a 
spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration. "We are 
aware it's a decision that has operational impacts and passenger 
inconveniences, all of which are taken into consideration."

Violent plots that occurred after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks serve 
as reminders that aviation remains a target of terrorists.

British citizen Richard Reid was convicted for attempting to detonate 
a bomb in his shoe aboard an American Airlines flight from Paris to 
Miami on Dec. 22, 2001. Reid was subdued by passengers.

Earlier this month, lighters were banned on U.S. commercial flights, 
in part because of the Reid incident. He used matches in his 
unsuccessful attempt to light explosives hidden in his shoes. 
Authorities later said a lighter might have worked better.

In addition, the downing of two Russian passenger jets in August was 
caused by suicide bombings carried out by Chechen terrorists, Russian 
investigators determined.

As the emergency played out Tuesday, a flight attendant brought the 
vials, which were secured tightly with rubber bands, to the cockpit 
for the captain to see, authorities said. Unsure what they could be, 
the captain declared an emergency and requested immediate clearance 
to O'Hare.

"The pilots and the flight attendants agreed the materials looked 
strange and wanted to have everything checked out by authorities," 
United spokesman Jeff Green said.

As a precaution before landing, flight attendants moved the 64 other 
passengers to seats in the front of the plane.

The crew did not speak Japanese, and the suspicious passenger did not 
speak much English, officials said.

The tense situation appeared to befuddle a group of Chinese 
passengers who also did not speak English, passengers said.

The flight crew "told us there was nothing for concern, they were 
quite close to Chicago," said Jason Wagoner, 35, of Australia. "Most 
of the passengers seemed confused. Most of them were from Beijing."

The Federal Aviation Administration cleared the airspace to allow the 
plane to make a quick descent.

"We took a dive out of the sky from 35,000 feet into O'Hare," said 
passenger Richard Myers, 63, of Manhattan, adding that the captain 
came on the cabin intercom to announce a security threat. "It was a 
very hard landing."

"It was a terrible situation. I've been on planes before when engines 
went out, but not on one where there was a bomb scare," Myers added. 
"It's terrifying when they dive down like that."

O'Hare air-traffic controllers taxied the plane to a holding pad 
known as "the bomb scare area." Armored police and bomb-sniffing dogs 
boarded and ran to the rear cabin.

Passengers said the two men seated there were taken off the plane, 
along with a travel case. Meanwhile, members of the police bomb and 
arson team began throwing carry-on baggage and airline pillows from 
overhead bins--plus virtually everything else that wasn't tied down 
in that section of the plane--out of emergency escape hatches.

Passengers were quickly led off the plane through the front door and 
down stairs to buses. Several dozen firetrucks and other emergency 
vehicles circled the plane.

"We could see them taking apart seats, throwing seat cushions off the 
plane," said Stan Rockson, 55, who watched the hunt for explosives 
while sitting in a bus with his son, Colin, 18.

"The thing that frightened me the most is the crew on the plane 
became very brusque in their behavior, barking to sit down, the 
attendants were moving back and forth," Rockson said.

Hours after the incident Tuesday, the man carrying the vials was 
released after questioning, Chicago police spokesman Carlos Herrera 
said.

The United plane later resumed its flight to San Francisco, arriving 
about 3 1/2 hours late and three vials lighter.

----------

JHilkevitch at Tribune.com


On 28 Apr 2005 at 10:35, PRAEst76 wrote:

fluwdot at earthlink.net wrote:

> "sir, you are under arrest, put down that calendula!" :
> 
> http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-
> 0504270152apr27,1,5132230.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

God, I'm so fucking tired of having to register for everything these
days.

Can you give us the gist of the article?

-- 
PRAEst76
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