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Oh my God ... how .. how could this be?

Federal officials yesterday deported a Moroccan man on the no-fly list who was taken into custody Saturday after his Washington-bound flight was diverted for security reasons. The passenger carried an expired Portuguese passport, a revoked U.S. work visa, and was aboard Air France Flight 026 to Washington Dulles International Airport — the same flight grounded four times because of a terrorist threat in February. Neither his name nor that of his flying companion, who left the country voluntarily, were released. Homeland Security officials did not name them when asked. CNN identified the passengers as Ahmed Lhacti, 47, and Mohammad Oukassou,...

ExcerptST. THOMAS - Ten employees at King Airport - ... - have been indicted on federal charges that they were part of a drug ring that distributed millions of dollars worth of cocaine and heroin to Florida, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. ...the conspirators would bring suitcases containing cocaine and heroin to the airport. After legitimate luggage containing no questionable items made it through Customs and X-raying, the conspirators sometimes removed the computer-generated routing tags from the bags and placed them on the suitcases containing drugs.

I have created a public register of "bump lists" here on Free Republic. I define a bump list as a name listed in the "To" field used to index articles. Free Republic Bump List Register

FORT LAUDERDALE – Four employees at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport were arrested for taking items from passenger’s bags. The men arrested were Aldo Santa-Cruz, Harford Howell, Tito Santos-Flores and Carlos Cruz. "It’s terrible. It’s very hard to understand why people do this, but people do terrible things," said passenger Judith Howard. Investigators say the workers stole jewelry, laptops and even cash. Some of the employees even sold the goods and stashed them in backpacks. Investigators say the thefts went on for about a year and a half and one of the victims was actress Shirley Maclaine. According to the criminal...

Airline says security officers approved faked ID for passenger By HARRY EAGAR, Staff Writer KAHULUI - A screaming, cursing passenger without identification got help from Kahului Airport security officers to board a Pacific Wings flight last Friday. Pacific Wings security coordinator (and chief pilot) Robert McKinney says his staff felt "pressured" by a Wackenhut officer who identified himself as a Maui police officer and by an official of the Transportation Security Administration to accept a "manufactured" police report and pass the woman through security. McKinney says he knows his staff has the final say on who boards and who doesn't,...

<p>WASHINGTON — When Mojdeh Rohani flew home to Boston after her wedding last fall, security screeners at Baltimore-Washington International Airport found a silver-plated cake serving set in her carry-on bag. She had forgotten that she had the utensils, which were a wedding gift.</p>

Airport cameras captured it all: On a busy morning at Los Angeles International Airport last month, a convicted felon wearing a sweatshirt, sunglasses and gloves strolled unnoticed past two security checkpoints in Terminal 5 and walked onto a jumbo jet without a ticket. Kareem Thomas, a 19-year-old Decatur, Ga., resident on probation for burglary, was discovered hiding in an airplane restroom by passengers and was apprehended by police before takeoff. Thomas was unarmed and passed through the airport's metal detectors along with other travelers. But the ease with which he boarded the Jan. 15 Delta Airlines Flight 1972 to Atlanta...

On November 19, 2002, the Homeland Security Act, H.R. 5005, was enacted into law, authorizing the training and certification of commercial airline pilots in the use of firearms, to protect the cockpit against hijackers. The Federal Flight Deck Officer (FFDO) training program, administered by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), graduated the first weekly class of 48 volunteer pilots in April 2003. However, the second weekly class of 48 didn't graduate until July 2003, and as of January 2004, more than two years after the horrific attacks of September 11, 2001, only "500 to 800" out of more than 100,000 commercial...

Bunning and Wilson Set to Knock Down Hurdles to Arming Pilots Gun Owners of America 8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102 Springfield, VA 22151 (703)321-8585 Friday, January 23, 2004 For two years in a row, Congress has overwhelmingly passed legislation to allow armed pilots to use firearms to protect their crews and passengers -- and innocent victims on the ground. Tragically, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) -- which has no problem scrambling fighters to shoot down passenger airplanes -- continues to drag its feet at the common-sense notion that American citizens should be allowed to defend themselves, rather than being shot...

(IsraelNN.com) El Al flight 105 to (Toronto - Los Angeles) has been diverted from Toronto to Montreal by the control tower due to a “security alert” according to the El Al spokesman. There are no details. The plane landed in Montreal without incident and is now refueling to continue. The 767 jumbo was carrying 180 passengers when ordered to divert. El Al is making arrangements for the 44 Toronto passengers to reach their destination. In addition, 45 passengers in Toronto will be brought to the plane to continue with the flight.

A Delta Air Lines flight scheduled to arrive in Atlanta Monday night has been stopped in Greensboro, North Carolina for security reasons, airline officials said. Flight 976 is currently being evacuated, according to a passenger on the flight who spoke to 11Alive News via a cell phone. Passengers are being taken off the plane in groups of 20 and being searched, the passenger said. The luggage is also reportedly being searched. It is unclear what prompted the evacuation.

<p>October 19, 2003 -- An honors-winning college student admitted yesterday he was the one who left packages with boxcutters, bleach and other threatening items on passenger jets in a misguided attempt to call attention to what he saw as lapses in the nation's airline security system. Nathaniel Heatwole, a political science and physics major at Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C., said he stashed the bags on two Southwest Airlines jets on which he flew as far back as September, according to a federal law-enforcement source. He even went so far as to send e-mails warning of his plan, according to authorities.</p>

FBI Questions Man on Box Cutters in Planes By CURT ANDERSON, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - The government on Friday ordered intensified security checks of the entire U.S. commercial air fleet after small plastic bags containing box cutters and other suspicious items were found on two Southwest Airlines planes. A 20-year-old North Carolina man was being questioned by the FBI in connection with the incidents, according to a congressional official and a senior law enforcement official, both of whom spoke on condition of anonymity. The congressional official said the man, described as a college student, had informed the Transportation Security...

Stolen Computer Search October 14, 2003 — The search goes on for a stolen laptop computer, a computer that contains sensitive information about security at all the commercial airports in the U.S. It happened during an airport security training seminar at the Embassy Suites near Philadelphia International. Police and the FBI have not located that computer nor have they made any arrests. I am told it contains sensitive information about security at the nation's 429 airports. A source tells Action News they do not believe this was the job of a professional who knew what was on the computer, but...

<p>Alaska State Troopers seized dozens of bottles of alcohol and thousands of grams of marijuana in September that were bound for Western Alaska, officials said Friday.</p> <p>Troopers with the Western Alaska Alcohol and Narcotics Team at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport seized 95 750-milliliter bottles and one 375-milliliter bottle of alcohol, troopers said in a press release. They also seized 2,371 grams, about 5.2 pounds, of marijuana.</p>

Filed at 5:19 p.m. ET NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- The federal government is looking into putting video cameras on commercial flights so people on the ground could monitor pilots and passengers and get an early warning of hijackings or other trouble on board. The Boeing Co. demonstrated a satellite system to Federal Aviation Administration officials in two test flights early this year, showing how images could be sent from a plane to the ground, said John Loynes, an FAA program manager in Washington. A Boeing 737, equipped with seven cameras, transmitted images of the cockpit and cabin. Pilots have fiercely...

Was it stolen for parts or to make a flying bomb? How could a Boeing 727 just disappear without a trace? You might think in this age of satellite surveillance and sophisticated air-traffic controls, it would be near impossible for a jetliner to be stolen, flown away and not seen again for more than four months. Yet, that's just what has happened in a daring feat that has governments around the world fearing the jetliner may be in the hands of terrorists, just awaiting its final suicide mission. The story began May 25, when two men climbed aboard an idle...

'I don't know who taught him to fly, but they didn't tell him to check the gas'. A 25-year-old man is facing several charges after his plane, reported stolen from an airfield in Maine, crashed into a Montérégie field yesterday morning. The man, a Livingston, Me., resident, suffered only minor injuries in the accident. He had been flying a Cessna without a pilot's licence or flight training, said Constable Manon Gaignard of the Sûreté du Québec. For unknown reasons, the man left a private airport, near Turner, Me., about 6:30 a.m., running out of gas three hours later above St....

This just breaking on Channel Two, Israel. Authorities in Thailand have foiled an Al Qaeda plot to blow up an El Al ISrael Airlines in the Capital, Bangkok.