On Aug. 16, two men were escorted off a plane headed for Manchester, England, because some passengers thought they looked either Asian or Middle Eastern, might have been talking Arabic, wore leather jackets, and looked at their watches — and the passengers refused to fly with them on board.
The men were questioned for several hours and then released.
On Aug. 15, an entire airport terminal was evacuated because someone’s cosmetics triggered a false positive for explosives. The same day, a Muslim man was removed from an airplane in Denver for reciting prayers. The Transportation Security Administration decided that the flight crew overreacted, but he still had to spend the night in Denver before flying home the next day.
The next day, a Port of Seattle terminal was evacuated because a couple of dogs gave a false alarm for explosives.
On Aug. 19, a plane made an emergency landing in Tampa, Florida, after the crew became suspicious because two of the lavatory doors were locked. The plane was searched, but nothing was found. Meanwhile, a man who tampered with a bathroom smoke detector on a flight to San Antonio was cleared of terrorism, but only after having his house searched.
On Aug. 16, a woman suffered a panic attack and became violent on a flight from London to Washington, so the plane was escorted to the Boston airport by fighter jets. “The woman was carrying hand cream and matches but was not a terrorist threat,” said the TSA spokesman after the incident.
And on Aug. 18, a plane flying from London to Egypt made an emergency landing in Italy when someone found a bomb threat scrawled on an air sickness bag. Nothing was found on the plane, and no one knows how long the note was on board.
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We’re all a little jumpy after the recent arrest of 23 terror suspects in Great Britain. The men were reportedly plotting a liquid-explosive attack on airplanes, and both the press and politicians have been trumpeting the story ever since.
In truth, it’s doubtful that their plan would have succeeded; chemists have been debunking the idea since it became public. Certainly the suspects were a long way off from trying: None had bought airline tickets, and some didn’t even have passports.
This comes as no surprise then….
In other aviation incidents, the AP reported:
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An American Airlines flight from England to Chicago, Illinois, was forced to land in Bangor, Maine, in response to an unspecified threat, authorities said. Passengers deplaned and were led to a holding area, said airport manager Rebecca Hupp. The jetliner was on the tarmac with its engines shut down.
“The [Transportation Security Administration] learned of a reported threat to the aircraft while it was en route,” TSA spokeswoman Andrea McCauley said, declining to give further details.
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A U.S. Airways jet was diverted to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, after a federal air marshal subdued a disruptive passenger who had pushed a flight attendant, the FBI said.
The passenger was taken into custody at Will Rogers World Airport, FBI spokesman Gary Johnson said. The passenger was undergoing a mental evaluation, and authorities had yet to determine what criminal charges he might face. The twin-engine jet returned to the air three hours later on its flight from Phoenix, Arizona, to Charlotte, North Carolina.
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A Continental Airlines flight from Corpus Christi, Texas, to Bakersfield, California, was held in El Paso, Texas, one of its scheduled stops, after the crew discovered that a panel was missing in a lavatory, authorities said.
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A utility knife was found on a vacant passenger seat of a U.S. Airways flight from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Bradley International Airport in Connecticut, state police said. No arrests were made and there were no threats involved, said Master Sgt. J. Paul Vance, state police spokesman.
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An Aer Lingus flight from New York to Dublin, Ireland, was evacuated Friday morning during a scheduled stopover in western Ireland following a bomb threat that turned out to be unfounded, officials said.
Agnetha 
Tourism North West Australia 
ProudCanadianKafira 
Tanin 
Ness 
Andrew 
Ramona 
Nees 
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We were told after 9/11 to “go about our daily lives” or we’re letting terrorists win.
I think what they were getting at was to “go about our daily lives but we want you to eat up all this fear we’re gonna dish out to you in the future so you can suspect even the most common person as a terroists, and if you happen to be one of the people under said suspicion just bend over and take it easy because we’d hate to rape you of anything.”
“….and you better like it!”
Confused for Arabic
I hate flying and it’s got nothing to do with fear. I just hate being constantly harrassed at the airport. Everytime I fly I’m always taken aside for a so-called random security screening. They take my belt and dick around with my shoes.
I must be on some sort of government watch list. I’m doing an FOIA to find out what they’re holding against me. I’ve never been to Afghanistan, I’ve never studiued at a madrassa, they just fuck with me because of my skin tone and beard.
I find it ironic that the September 11th hijackers were all clean shaven and yet they look for fuses in my flip flops.