Posted on 03/05/2007 8:55:22 AM PST by aculeus
The following is an email I received detailing a “serious probe” on board American Airlines flight 62 traveling from Paris to Miami. The information comes to me second-hand — from a trusted source in the field. American Airlines spokesman John Hotard confirmed the incident on flight 62 with me, stating “there was a disturbance on board, it was handled by crew.” I asked Mr. Hotard the status of the men who were detained by FBI. Hotard told me “for security reasons, I can’t comment further.”
Here it is, unedited:
“This is not meant to scare, but it probably will. Consider yourself informed and warned that the threat is real. This crew reported that they were not prepared that something of this nature could be happening to them.
Flt 62, Paris to MIA [Miami], a few weeks ago. 2 maybe 4 mid-eastern types causing minor disturbance from the get-go. Nothing that the FAs [flight attendants] couldn’t deal with, but, in hindsight, they seemed to be pushing the envelope. Cross-cabin activity, hanging out in the forward galley, complaining about everything, etc. Mid-Atlantic, the FO [First Officer, or Co-Pilot] called to return to the cockpit after his crew-rest break. One of the perps [perpetrators] was in the forward galley, was instructed by a FA to go aft, but didn’t. As the cockpit door opened, another perp suddenly appeared from around the galley, dropped his shoulder into FO while the first one got in the way of the FO’s attempt to block the other…here I’m not certain…so….wait for the movie.
FO (one of our first FFDO’s [Federal Flight Deck Officers*]) was about to pull his flashlight to use as a weapon in a counter attack, but thought better of it not knowing how many more perps he might have to fight, called “lockdown” to the FB [secondary “B” First Officer], inside the cockpit, who slammed the door. As soon as the perps heard the word lockdown, they retreated to their seats.
I’m not doing justice to the story, but, if not an attempt on the cockpit, this was a serious probe.
Crew considered divert, but since the threat diminished and seemed to be contained, they pressed on towards MIA. Flight was met in MIA by FBI, FAMS [Federal Air Marshal Service] (none aboard, by the way), AA [American Airlines] Security suits, etc. During the de-brief, which lasted several hours, the FAMs told the pilots that they would have “dropped” both of the perps with the first shove near the cockpit door. Perps claimed to not understand English, were detained for 4 days and deported, back to Paris, when they are free to attend Sunday school, tell their buddies of their Adventure and plan their next move.
Enjoying the story so far? It’s good we can’t carry guns on Int’l [International] trips, eh?
Upsetting is that we all have to learn of this, by happenstance. Why didn’t you and your last crew know of this? We took a delay yesterday while this FB detailed the entire event to my crew. Believe me, there were no disbelievers that the terrorist threat is real in my crew by the time we boarded.
I’m more than upset that this is still a secret! The FB is a man I’ve flown with often, trust completely and attended FFDO (Federal Flight Deck Officer) training with a year ago January. I hope I’ve presented his story accurately, but am certain that the basic details are very close.
***********************
On a separate note, American Airlines flight 63, also traveling from Paris to Miami, was the subject of a thwarted terrorist attack in December of 2001 when “shoe bomber” Richard Reid tried to bring down the aircraft by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes. Reid was later found guilty of terrorism charges in federal court in Massachusetts and sentenced to life in prison.
* Armed Federal Flight Deck Officers are not allowed to carry their guns while flying international routes.
Another good reason tofly El Al.
Yeah, I know, lock em up in the cockpit. It's been proposed by some of the imbeciles running the TSA. It didn't fly then and it certainly won't fly now. No pun intended.
Having said that, one of their obvious and clear problems, and one these people had no problem articulating about just like many of us speak out about our own similar immigration problem, is that they have a large population of muslims who are very restless.
THAT should have triggered a "lockdown" and general high security status. On a commercial passenger aircraft, there should be ZERO tolerance for passengers not complying with crew members' instructions. No English? How much English does it take to understand when a crew member is pointing aft and saying something directly to you in a stern voice?
"No English" should not be an excuse, but it would be a good idea to have all passengers required to list what languages they understand when purchasing a ticket, and print an instruction on their ticket in one of those languages and in English that if any crew member says something to you that you don't understand, you should respond by immediately returning to your own seat and sitting down in it, or to a different seat if the crew member leads you to a different one. It's a simple concept, and wouldn't be hard to make part of common knowledge, just like buckling your seat belt for take-off and landing. It would enable passengers to demonstrate that they are attempting to behave appropriately, and enable crew to quickly identify passengers who are not attempting to behave appropriately and be legally protected if they use physical force to control such a passenger.
First thing that occured to me.
Why anyone is allowed in the galley areas near the cockpit post 911 has always baffled me. I've done it, my family has done it, in the 70s and 80s.
The new rules announced recently by one airline, the use of first class rest rooms by anyone just makes a bad situation worse.
As an aside, what is the point of having rules aboard an aircraft if there's no means of enforcing them?
By definition, murderers don't do rules.
IIRC A French passenger or two were involved in the takedown of Richard Reid, the wannabe shoe bomber.
-PJ
May or may not have been a probe, but I seriously doubt it was an attempt to take over the plane, unless they just wanted to destroy it alone. Mid-Atlantic is way too far out to use the plane as a weapon.
I'm not so sure about that. It's very difficult to tell who "our people" are, given that some people who have been firmly identified as terrorist operatives are US citizens with no criminal record. And even genuinely well-intentioned US citizens can be muddle-headed or paranoid. Some passenger who's terrified from the start about possible terrorist activity on his flight might be trigger-happy -- e.g. might have responded to a commotion like this one by firing at one of the Arab trouble-makers, hitting a member of the crew, even the FO or FB coming out the cockpit door.
Granted in THIS situation, nobody should have been opening the cockpit door, but I don't trust every random US citizen with no criminal record to distinguish a situation like this one, from a situation in which an Arab-looking passenger is genuinely notifying a crew member of, say, his father having symptoms of a heart attack, and understandably sounding/acting agitated. The crew might well be able to discern that this was a genuine report and act accordingly, while a passenger some rows back might rush to assume the worst and shoot.
I would, however, like to see flight attendants trained to carry and use firearms to handle situations like this, and to ensure that there are always armed crew members on board, and out among the passengers, aware of emerging problems on a real-time basis.
*************
LOL!!
When I say "our people" I mean the flight deck crew and the air marshalls.
These perps should have been sent to an interrogation facility and been introduced to the water board. These incidents, like those of the praying Imams in Minneapolis, are clearly tests of current security measures and we can soon expect more plane hijackings by the religion of peace.
For later review.
I honestly think that the airline trick is out for now. But we need to keep aware.
Or a folding door between the seats and the galley. It wouldn't have to be exceedingly sturdy, just enough to deter a rush to the galley in the few seconds the cockpit door is open. Shut it some minutes before a crew member comes out and reopen some minutes afterward.
Are TASERs forbidden for flight crew on such flights? These perps should have been dropped.
This sounds very brazen to me - not your usual pushing the limits...but I tend to be an alarmist. ;-)
No one should object to being asked to momentarily step back from the galley.
-PJ
Ping.
The terrorist no longer have Saddam's jet plane at Salman Pak to practice on, so they're figuring it out on real flights.
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