Homeland Security Agents Force Plane to Land in San Antonio

WOAI ^ | 1/24/2005 | ElephantinTexas

[ElephantinTexas]

This is my first post so I hope I got it right.

This is breaking here in San Anonio. A single engine plane has been forced down at Stenson Field south of San Antonio. Homeland Security, DPS and SAPD are on the scene. They are waiting for a Chinese tranlator but they have Chinese illegals in custody and said that the pilot was someone Homeland Security has been looking for.

I'll post more as it comes available.

[SeaBiscuit]

Thanks for the reply. Yep, looks like no connection.

[ElephantinTexas]

I did just catch a small blurb on the Today show on this but not very much.

I also saw some 'live' pictures of the four "perps", but it was dark and they had new 'modern' haircuts, heavy coats, etc. and the pics posted here are pretty old so it's hard to say.

Here's the 7am update from KSAT 12 and we know more than they do at this point!!

http://www.ksat.com/news/4126556/detail.html?treets=ant&tml=ant_7am&ts=T&tmi=ant_7am_1_07000101252005

[Claytay]

Thanks, keep me informed b/c I am off to work. I am wondering if they were heading to SA or maybe alittle father north like here in Austin.

[csvset]

Fyi

[Coop]

I guess putting SAMs on the border is out of the question?

What makes you think we don't have an air defense system?

[Velveeta]

Thank you for the ping.

[fivecatsandadog]

yabut.... did you notice the name of the co-owner of the plane? plane is co-owned by Afzal Hameed of Dover, Del...

me thinks something stinks...

[Miss Marple]

Hi! I am at my son's home and driving over I heard the radio report in Indianapolis on this story. They referred to them as "5 people." I think I will call the radio station. Back later.

[Khurkris]

Verty welcome. Thats what we're here for. < a tip o' the hat >

[ElephantinTexas]

There ARE five people. Four illegal Chinese PLUS the US pilot who is of SYRIAN decent, Azfel Hameed, who runs his flight school now at the San Antonio Int'l Airport Campus.

They are all still being held and are being questioned as to why they were illegally flying over our airspace.

[shadeaud]

Big Texas Welcome E.T. I'm here in King William district (the most liberal section of San Antonio) waiting for the liberals to claim that these ''Asians'' were just trying to find a better life and they need to be granted residency (in a Northeast section of town of course) so they can live the American dream. (or continue up to Boston so they can release that dirty bomb)

[Miss Marple]

The point is that the radio station did NOT let anyone know their natiinalities. I called and got a reporter, but he couldn't give me much time as he was doing the traffic report. He didn't know anything about the story, but said they probably got it from ABC radio.

ABC is scrubbing the details from the story. I think THAT is important.

[ElephantinTexas]

correction..... Afzal Hameed

[MeekOneGOP]

I've added you. Thanks. :^)

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Ah sow.... Charlie Chan say, "Gleat wolk by Homerand Seculity"!

[shadeaud]

NBC is still identifying the nationality of these illegals as Chinese. I guess they have to with the video of the perps. I wonder if this story will get any legs or will it end up on the editors floor along with Hillary's campagin finance directors plea.

[righthand man]

Remember those Sheriff's department DARE programs?

You forgot one .

D A R E program had all the kiddies drawing pictures of their houses where the GUNS are keep .

[ElephantinTexas]

Well I've posted several good links to the stories from our local media here and one from Fox News, Miss Marple, plus I'm watching it live here in San Antonio soooo call them Yankee's back up and slap 'em around for me and tell 'em I told ya' to!!!

The Elephant in the Room with his Boots on the Ground.

[Miss Marple]

I gave the guy a couple links. The morning talk show is devoted to the Indiana legislature the first hour. If they go to open phones or national issues, I will call in and talk to Greg Garrison.

[Lijahsbubbe]

There ARE five people. Four illegal Chinese PLUS the US pilot who is of SYRIAN decent, Azfel Hameed, who runs his flight school now at the San Antonio Int'l Airport Campus.

I thought we put the crackdown on flight schools after 9/11. What happened? A Syrian no less?

[robomurph]

5 people in a 172P? They are lucky to be alive.

[VRWCTexan]

Quote: If we had a 40,000 foot high fence across the border they couldn't have gotten over it.

Damn Skippy - I would be willing to pay a extra sum in taxes if I knew for certain that it would be used to put a strong military presence all along our southern and northern borders - along with a permanent air cap of F-16s

[Chemist_Geek]

There's no record of an Afzal Hameed having his pilot's license on that website, although I have no clue how complete their records would be.

One doesn't have to have a pilot certificate to own an airplane.

The FAA airmen database is here.

[ElephantinTexas]

WOAI TV has just reported that Afzal Hameed has MULTIPLE licenses for many types of aircraft.

He owns Alpha Tango Flying Services, Inc. The number on the plane they are holding is N98873.

Alpha Tango Flying Svc Inc
(210) 828-4479  9623 W Terminal Dr
San Antonio, TX.

[deport]

Five on small plane detained at Stinson

Web Posted: 01/25/2005 07:48 AM CST

Vincent T. Davis, San Antonio Express-News
Associated Press

Four immigrants and a pilot were detained after a Homeland Security Department division helped surround their plane at Stinson Municipal Airport on Monday night.

The five are being investigated in connection with a smuggling operation involving Chinese nationals, said Capt. Jeff Humphrey, San Antonio police special operations commander.

The five had been flying in a single-engine Cessna 172P south of San Antonio.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement requested help from the San Antonio Police Department, which provided a Chinese linguist to translate for the two male and two female passengers.

A police dispatcher said the craft was brought down at Stinson Municipal Airport just before 10 p.m. Monday.

"They brought a plane down. They are holding it," a San Antonio Police Department dispatcher, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press early Tuesday. "They asked us to assist them. The FBI is handling it now."

Online records of the Federal Aviation Administration show that the 20-year-old plane is co-owned by Afzal Hameed of Dover, Del. The other co-owner is listed as Alyce S. Taylor, but no address is given for her.

The FAA records state that the plane's last three-year registration was filed in 1999, and that the agency received no response in 2002 after mailing new registration forms to Hameed.

Authorities said the five had been flying south of San Antonio when they were intercepted and ordered to land. Federal agents and San Antonio police surrounded the plane after it landed.

The government's action comes at a time of heightened awareness.

FBI agents have been looking into an uncorroborated tip that 16 people might be planning an attack on Boston, the Associated Press reported last week. They are 13 Chinese nationals, two Iraqis and a man identified on the FBI's Web site as Jose Ernesto Beltran Quinones, whose nationality was not given.

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said Friday that he has become "less concerned, not more concerned" about the threat since it was first reported Wednesday.

The original tip was received by the California Highway Patrol, said another federal law enforcement official in Washington who also spoke on condition of anonymity.

The tipster claimed that four of the Chinese - two men and two women - entered the United States from Mexico and were awaiting a shipment of "nuclear oxide" that would follow them to Boston.

FBI officials have said they haven't been able to corroborate the terror claim. A leading theory in the case is that a smuggler of illegal immigrants made up the plot to get revenge on the group, perhaps because members failed to pay.

[deport]

from another article in the Houston Chronicle about this incident.

SNIP

Last week the FBI, citing a tip, notified law enforcement officials to watch out for four Chinese nationals -- two men and two women -- described as possible terror suspects who may be headed to the Boston area.

A man suspected of telling authorities about the Boston terror suspects was detained Monday by Mexican authorities in Mexicali, on the California border.

Jose Ernesto Beltran Quinones was on an FBI list of 16 people sought for questioning about the alleged terror plot. FBI special agent Kiffa Shirley told the AP that Quinones was being questioned on behalf of the FBI.

FBI officials have said they haven't been able to corroborate the terror claim. A leading theory in the case is that a smuggler of illegal immigrants made up the plot to get revenge on the group, perhaps because members failed to pay.

[ravingnutter]

I guess putting SAMs on the border is out of the question?

Now haul your carcass off'n my premises!

[MeekOneGOP]

Thanks for the update.

[SuzyQue]

Would you please put me on your Texas ping list? Thank you.

[ravingnutter]

Thanks for the update...a little scary...I work just down the road from Stinson Airport.

[jimbo123]

Looks like the oft-discussed by jihadis Operation Jihad Falcon has been disrupted. I wonder if the plot was to detonate multiple dirty bombs or chemical agents over major cities.

[MeekOneGOP]

Ping Happy to #125 .....

[LurkedLongEnough]

Just a thought, a border-watcher UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) could have sensed the plane, but they don't want to say that in the news.

[MeekOneGOP]

My pleasure.

I've added you, thanks. :^)

[jriemer]

The FAA records state that the plane's last three-year registration was filed in 1999, and that the agency received no response in 2002 after mailing new registration forms to Hameed. !!!

[nw_arizona_granny]

Soneone found the plane number, I put it in google and got the links below.

There was an accident in 2000 in this plane, doing touch and go landings, it is under 8-21-2000, San Anotonio.

The next one is for the same accident, says the pilot was a licensed Mexican pilot.

I can't open the chinese page.


Web
Results 1 - 5 of 5 for N98873. (0.12 seconds)



Look up aircraft with registration number N98873
registry.faa.gov


CESSNA 172P - Fixed Wing Single Engine Registrations for CESSNA ...
... AFZAL HAMEED, Co-Owned, 30 OLD RUDNICK LN DOVER, DE 19901 US (Kent
County),
1985, 17276369, N98873, LYCOMING/0-320 SERIES 180 HorsePower. ...
www.aircraftone.com/aircraft/ models/cessna_172p_2072436.asp - 101k -
Cached - Similar pages

????????????? - [ Translate this page ]
The summary for this Chinese (Simplified) page contains characters that cannot be
correctly displayed in this language/character set.
www.epochtimes.com/gb/1/6/14/n98873.htm - 13k - Cached - Similar pages

?????????????
The summary for this Chinese (Traditional) page contains characters that
cannot be correctly displayed in this language/character set.
www.epochtimes.com/b5/1/6/14/n98873.htm - 13k -
Cached - Similar pages

NTSB - Aug 2000 Aviation Accidents
... 7/10/2001 KAPLAN, LA Grumman-Schweizer G-164B N6506K Nonfatal Part 137:
Agricultural
Probable Cause 4/19/2001 SAN ANTONIO, TX Cessna 172P N98873 Nonfatal Part ...
www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/AccList.asp?month=8&year=2000 - 48k - Jan 23, 2005 -
Cached - Similar pages

NTSB Report Brief
... Accident/Incident: Accident. Accident Location: SAN ANTONIO, Texas. Aircraft
N-Number:
N98873. Aircraft Information. Aircraft Make/Model: Cessna 172P. ...
www8.landings.com/cgi-bin/
nph-nntsb_connect?pass=12345&file=nntsb_200008.dat&pos=384911 - 39k -
Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages

[ElephantinTexas]

The reporters here, where the five are being held, are saying that the plane was picked up by Homeland Security Radar.

[jimbo123]

From other thread. The muzzie suspect owns a flight school in San Antonio

http://www.beapilot.com/cgi-local/schools/record_display.pl?482

[txrangerette]

{A previous post said "I didn't know Homeland Security had radar".}

Just let me say it this way...an agency that is now under Homeland Security is what has the radar. And has had it for awhile. But only now is it being called Homeland Security radar, because that agency is now under this new cabinet dept.

By the way, I'm not saying I know the agency and don't won't to reveal it...I don't know it for sure. But it's one of them that offers a type of defense for this country...air defense or border defense or something. And the President has told us many times that these defenses are being beefed up.

Now let me welcome a fellow Texan to Free Republic. You did great!

[ElephantinTexas]

Well the links and reports are saying this guy is Afzal Hameed. But if you look for Hameed Afzal, look at what you get!

http://www.beapilot.com/cgi-local/schools/record_display.pl?482

[conservative in nyc]

Thanks for the link. I refuse to give personal info to the government to perform a search, so I'm not checking it.

You don't need a pilot's certificate to own a plane (or a flight school). But one theory is that Afzal Hameed was flying the plane. He'd be less likely to do so if he wasn't licensed.

The story is filling in. but we still don't know all the facts. The print reports haven't identified the pilot. Could be Hameed. Could be Taylor. Could be one of their students out for a joy ride.

By the way, if my information that Afzal Hameed and Taylor have been married for 24+ years is correct, he could be an American citizen through marriage.

[mimmson]

Michelle Malkin adds this: Guess who trained at Alpha Tango Flying Services--which, by the way, caters to Saudi Arabian flight students(!!!!):

Among their clients were three Arab flight students investigated by the FBI, including Al Qaeda operative Abdul Hakim Murad , who was arrested in Manila in 1995 and later convicted in New York of plotting to blow up a dozen U.S. airliners over the Pacific, then crash a suicide plane into CIA headquarters.

The FBI has been keeping tabs on Alpha Tango since Sept. 11. So, now, a plane co-owned by Alpha Tango's president, who is incommunicado, has been forced down with a planeful of Chinese illegal aliens in the wake of a terror alert involving Chinese illegal aliens.

Curiouser and curiouser.

[evets]

There is an Alyce Taylor who is a member of the San Antonio 99's Women's pilot organization. They have some phots of there travels to China here: http://sanantonio99s.org

[robomurph]

How far is SA from the Mexican border? I wonder if this guy has been making regular flights at night after the tower closes?

The flight school is at San Antonio International. Does anyone know if the tower there closes at night?

[Jeff F]

The Chinese language web page ("http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/1/6/14/n98873.htm") is strangely enough one about aviation. However this seems to be purely a coincidence as the N98873 tail number simply matches an instance of the sites page naming scheme. There are n98874.htm and n98875.htm pages on the site as well.

[jimbo123]

Operation Jihad Falcon has be stopped. Now we know where they were going to get their airplanes to fly over the target cities.

[God bless Texas]

I SURRENDER!!!!!

[planekT]

Welcome to Free Republic my fellow San Antonian!

[God bless Texas]

Posse Comitatus?

[conservative in nyc]

Courtesy of billorites on the other thread. Hameed Afzal is a certified pilot. His names seem to often be used backwards:

---

Ton of U.S issued ratings.

Private Pilot license issued in Pakistan in 1980.

BTW, one of my best instructors was a Turk named Ghenghis.

FAA Registry
Name Inquiry Results
HAMEED AFZAL

Address
Street 6822 LAGUNA VERDE
City SAN ANTONIO State TEXAS
County BEXAR Zip Code 78239-3628
Country UNITED STATES


Medical

Medical Class : Second Medical Date: 08/2004

* MUST WEAR CORRECTIVE LENSES.



Certificates
1 of 6

1 2 3 4 5 6

DOI : 07/15/1988
Certificate: AIRLINE TRANSPORT PILOT
Rating(s):

AIRLINE TRANSPORT PILOT
AIRPLANE SINGLE ENGINE LAND
COMMERCIAL PRIVILEGES
AIRPLANE MULTIENGINE LAND

32 posted on 01/25/2005 11:15:10 AM EST by billorites (freepo ergo sum)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1328038/posts?page=32#32