U.S. Teen Arrested In Plane Hijack Plot

www.cbsnews.com ^ | Jan. 25, 2008 | (CBS/AP)

[BreezyDog]

Authorities believe a teen accused of plotting to hijack a plane was suicidal, and a judge was scheduled to decide Friday whether to keep him in custody.

The 16-year-old, who has not been identified by authorities, was removed from a Southwest Airlines flight Tuesday night at Nashville International Airport. He was being held at a juvenile detention facility.

FBI spokesman George Bolds told The Associated Press the teen had handcuffs, rope and duct tape in his bag, and was believed to be traveling alone.

"His plan had a low probability of success," Bolds said.

The teen was calm during the flight from Los Angeles and made no apparent attempt to commandeer the plane, Bolds said. He could not comment further on the teen's mental condition because he is a minor.

Authorities searched the boy's home in California and found a mock cockpit, he said.

The tip to police likely came from his parents; he supposedly used his mother's credit card to buy the airline ticket, reports CBS affiliate WTVF-TV in Nashville. Sources said he may have made similar threats to do something like this in the past.

Juvenile Court Administrator Tim Adgent said a hearing scheduled Friday afternoon would determine whether the teen should remain in custody or "if there other avenues for his release."

A message left with the juvenile public defender's office was not immediately returned.

The boy is currently facing only state charges. Nashville District Attorney General spokeswoman Susan Niland would not release the nature of the charges because the suspect is a minor.

Federal prosecutors were still reviewing the case and had not filed any charges as of Friday morning, said David Boling, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Middle Tennessee.

The FBI dismissed broadcast reports Thursday night that the teen was planning to crash the plane into a "Hannah Montana" concert in Lafayette, La.

[BreezyDog]

I need a name and picture for obvious reasons.

[jwparkerjr]

I can’t believe he was able to get this contraband on board the flight ‘in his bag’. Wasn’t anyone checking the carry-on baggage to make it sure didn’t contain things like this?

We are spending billions of dollars on security and a teen flies that far with banned items in his possession? This doesn’t do a lot to make me feel safe about flying somewhere!

[Red Badger]

Authorities searched the boy's home in California and found a mock cockpit, he said.

Uh, where was mom and dad?.........

[Godwin1]

As long as he was not identified through “profiling”......

[SlapHappyPappy]

The kid was planning on attempting to murder thousands of innocent children, and the judge is wondering if he should be held in custody because he’s “suicidal”?

[GingisK]

We are spending billions of dollars on security and a teen flies that far with banned items in his possession?

Only now do you discover that our airport security is merely "window dressing"? How can security be enforced right alongside "Political Correctness"?

I've know for many years now that our leaders are idiots. Welcome aboard.

[NonValueAdded]

I assume the handcuffs were zip ties and not the metal bracelet kind. Otherwise, some TSA screener has a lot of explaining to do. Then again, rope, duct tape, and hand restraints whether metal or zip? And that didn’t raise an alarm?

[lormand]

A co-worker told me that when he travelled with his family and mother-in-law to Yosemite park last year, he was shocked when he saw his mother-in-law pull a knife out of her purse and start carving an apple after reaching the first connecting flight.

[Minnesoootan]

dont all teens make mock cockpits in their rooms?

[ricks_place]

Did the boy give mock flying lessons in his mock pit?

[El Gato]

” handcuffs, rope and duct tape” are contraband? Maybe the hand cuffs I suppose. But rope and duct tape might not even show up on the X ray machine. Maybe the “hand cuffs” were really cable ties, aka “zip ties”, which the police use in situations where there are too many needing to be restrained to use the “one per cop” handcuffs. Those wouldn’t show up on the X-ray either. (by “not show up” I mean not show up as anything suspicious, you might see something).

[El Gato]

dont all teens make mock cockpits in their rooms?

Flight Sim anyone? It was used, with some "extras", to make a C-130 crew coordination trainer for the Air Force Reserve.

[jwparkerjr]

I think they are making more of the contraband thing than they should these days. I can’t imagine the passengers let anyone take over flight now unless they are armed with at least a semiautomatic weapon. I don’t think box cutters or pocken knives, let along fingernail clippers, are going to the trick now days!

The whole 9/11 plan was so successful simply because all the hijackings in the past were to get the plane and get taken somewhere like Cuba.

I wouldn’t want to be the one who tried taking over a plane full of passengers with nothing more than some sort of knife-like object. I suspect they would find me beaten to death when the plane landed.

[jwparkerjr]

Points well taken. I have flown only once since 9/11 and they opened my carry on luggage and went through it pretty carefully. I am a photographer and had all sorts of things in there that would look strange on x-ray. It hadn’t occurred to me that if the bag look OK when it went through x-ray they probably wouldn’t look inside.

Thanks for the enlightenment! Once again, FreeRep comes to the rescue.

[Tijeras_Slim]

"His plan had a low probability of success,"

His plan had a high probability of a serious beat down.

[BunnySlippers]

Remember the full grown cat that got into the luggage last week? It was x-rayed and went through security. No problem.

[jwparkerjr]

And it was in checked baggage which means the person doing the screening wasn’t feeling rushed by all those people in line waiting, impatiently, to get through. I would have thought the x-ray outline of a cat would have been pretty distinctive!

[Turret Gunner A20]

BTTT

[Gamecock]

Well that’s just great. Now the TSA won’t let me bring duct tape on board. What will keep the stupid tray table from falling and smacking me?

[Turret Gunner A20]

BTTT