Attempt Made to Highjack Plane at Deming, N.M., Airport

http://www.foxnews.com ^ | 10/6/01

[NautiNurse]

Heads up--Is this another amazing coincidence? How close is this airport to the balloon festival?

Islamic Calendar

[K7TNW]

"NO ONE IS COVERING THIS, WHY? "

Becuz is it totally unimportant?

[FITZ]

It looks like from another thread that maybe the FBI is looking into this unrelated to anything isolated incident.

[willyboyishere]

So Deming is near Albuquerque? Remember the thread about a week ago regarding an Islamic calender broken into 4 parts of three months each, which featured (in the September section) a depiction of the NYC skyline and a plane going down in the water and a fireball somewhere in the skyline with the WTC visible also in the pic. A FReeper pointed out that the very next section had a gaudy painted depiction of troops on the ground and what looked like hot air balloons in the sky: he noted that the annual hot air balloon festival was scheduled in October to be held in Albuquerque. I'm gonna do a Google search on this now.

[willyboyishere]

Just did a google search and YES INDEED THE HOT AIR BALLOON FESTIVAL STARTS TODAY!!!! TOO MUCH OF A COINCIDENCE!!!!

[NautiNurse]

See #61

[EaglesUpForever]

But what terrible things could they do to the balloon festival? I don't see how that could be a basis for anything comparable to the World Trade Center.

All your balloons are belong to us?

[Merovingian]

LINK

[NautiNurse]

OCTOBER 06, 16:27 EDT

Man Tries to Hijack N.M. Plane, FBI Says

DEMING, N.M. (AP) — Authorities were searching Saturday for a man who held a knife to the neck of a pilot and attempted to hijack a medical transport plane before fleeing a tiny airport in southern New Mexico.

FBI supervisory agent Doug Beldon said Friday night's incident appeared to be isolated and unrelated to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center. No arrests have been made.

The University of New Mexico Hospital plane arrived at the Deming Municipal Airport around 9:45 p.m. to transport Mimbres Memorial Hospital. Paramedics had gone to get the baby and the pilot stayed behind.

A man entered the back door of the plane and put a knife to the neck of the pilot and said, ``Let's fly,'' Beldon said.

``It was very dark,'' he said. ``The pilot certainly felt the knife to her neck.''

The man was carrying a knife and a radio or police scanner. He was also wearing dark clothes that included a black hood with the eyes cut out.

The pilot started the King Air twin turbo-prop plane and headed down the runway when the back door opened and made a loud crashing noise. The pilot veered off the runway, Beldon said.

``Just after she veered off the runway, he struck her in the head three times with the radio device,'' he said. He said the man periodically repeated a word that sounded like ``salama.'' Beldon could not identify the language of the word or give the exact spelling.

``He did speak with a foreign accent,'' which did not seem to be Spanish, Beldon said.

The pilot was taken to a Deming hospital, where was treated and released Saturday morning. The FBI and officials with Seven Bar Flying Service would not release the name of the pilot.

UNM hospital spokesman Sam Giammo said another plane was immediately dispatched to transport the child to Albuquerque, 200 miles north of Deming.

[NautiNurse]

Just a small crowd of about 250,000 people per day, total about 1 million over the duration of the festival.

[K7TNW]

"So Deming is near Albuquerque? Remember the thread about a week ago regarding an Islamic calender broken into 4 parts of..."

I think I have the connection. What do Albuquerque, America, Airplane, and Albatross all have in common?

The letter "A". Yes, this is it. This is the ticket. I bring this with geometric logic. This is definitely the conspiracy!

Heaven help us.

[EaglesUpForever]

OK, many people, but what damage would a small plane do?

[willyboyishere]

You're making an ass of yourself to dismiss this out of hand. See several replies down from yours to me to read the actual newspaper story on this and the description of the would-be hijacker.

[willyboyishere]

I meant see two posts UP from yours, namely #69. If you think an obvious Arab terrorist in an obscure NM town attempts to hijack a plane just for the fun of it, you're out of your mind.

[Abn1508]

There was an attempted hijacking (a while back) of a FedEx plane. It was by an employee, a pilot. I don't recall the details but he was "distraught" which usually means completely round the bend.

The little I caught about this was that it was a medical supply plane and it looked like "ordinary decent criminals" as the Brits would say, rather than terrorists.

[mrustow]

I've hit your link, and scoured the site, without finding any report on an attempted hijacking anywhere. What gives?

[mrustow]

Apparently, the pilot was female. The writer played games with her sexuality, even dropping the third person pronoun in one case.

[NautiNurse]

OK, many people, but what damage would a small plane do?

[abner]

OK, many people, but what damage would a small plane do?

Not much. But it could get law enforcement to pay attention to the skies, and not the ground. My concern is more along the lines of terrorists mulling around in the crowd. Earlier this week on the FoxNews crawler, they were mentioning concerns of terrorists being infected with something contagious, and just walking around at an event with lots of people attending.

My other concern would be if they did have something nuclear hidden somewhere in the desert.

I contacted the BFA(Balloon Federation of America) they blew me off, I contacted the FBI, I know they are way too busy to get back to me. I also contacted my congressman, and they did not blow me off. They were very interested, and said they would follow up. They seemed to have the same concerns I did.

[EaglesUpForever]

Well it's worth being concerned, I'm afraid generally we are still not paying enough attention to security.