From: Darrell Ramsell (daram@comcast.net)
Date: Tue Aug 09 2005 - 12:08:37 PDT
I'm a Flight Attendant for a major airline and what Bill said has always
bothered me too but unfortunately we can't enforce our laws in another
country.
I also had to laugh at the irony of our soldiers having to give up nose hair
scissor but allowed to keep their guns.
However, I want to let you know that their are people who are doing their
jobs. A couple of weeks ago a United flight from LA to London was diverted
to Boston because of suspicious activity of 3 middle eastern passenders
aboard the flight. This is a reminder that the terrorist are still out
there and watching us. Below is a copy of an e-mail from the #1 Flight
Attendant on the flight.
They're still out there, don't let anyone tell you otherwise, Diana
Subject: UAL LAX-LHR flight 25Jul05
Date: Sun, 7 Aug 2005 03:13:36 +0000
LAX/LHR Flight
25 July, 2005
Hi all...
Many of you may have seen CNN and other news reports or read in the papers
about the
LAX/LHR flight that diverted to Boston to remove three suspicious
passengers. Well, guess who was lucky enough to be the Purser on the flight?
Thanks to those of you who have called or written with their concern. I am
fine and other than a million reports I have to write, all is well.
The three Pakistani passengers, two in BC seats (8A and 14D) and one in
economy, got our attention before takeoff with self upgrading, moving about
the plane, changing seats several times and asking the crew about our
layover, where we stayed, etc. We basically ignored them and wrote them off
as bothersome. During the bar service, two of the guys kept drinking a lot,
and asking for refills before we got two rows away. Now we wrote them off as
obnoxious, as well as annoying. We cut down the drinks to the guy in BC who
wanted more scotch and wine with dinner. After the meal service, the guy in
8A, who hadn't said a word, got up and went to 14D and spoke with him for 10
minutes. We didn't even know they knew each other as they had no prior
contact. The F/As in economy were concerned over the behavior of the economy
passenger and asked for a name check. The cockpit got back to us to let us
know all had gone through secondary clearance in LAX and were all ticketed
to Islamabad, Pakistan. All the guys kept going to the bathroom and now we
were checking the loos every time they came out. After 8A spoke with 14D, he
(14D) went to economy and went straight to the overhead in 32CDE, took out a
briefcase and brought it back to his BC seat. 32E was where the economy
passenger was originally seated, but he had moved to 31G on the aisle. All
the F/As were keeping an eye on these three and every time we would casually
look at them, they were staring at us, watching everything we were doing.
The economy guy went to the back galley and kept the duty free sellers busy
by asking to see everything and having them open several items to the point
where one of them wrote on a piece of paper to another F/A, "He's
distracting us, see what's happening in the cabin"....
I was communicating all this information to the cockpit, as well as our
concerns. I don't think they took it as seriously as we did. That was until
the economy guy went to the F/As in the back and asked them if we had been
up in the air for 3 1/2 hours yet. He kept asking when 3 1/2 hours would be.
At the same time, the 14D guy went up to the BC F/As and asked if we'd been
flying 3, 3 1/2 or 4 hours yet. Now most passengers ask how much longer we
have to go and not if we've been flying a specific time, and we figured with
all their drinking, they didn't want to know the time so they could face
Mecca for their prayers. UAL and the pilots decided we needed to divert
before we got over the Atlantic (we were about 3 1/2 hours out from LAX,
over the Hudson Bay) so we did a slow turn and descent to Boston for 1:50
hours. We also pulled the circuit breaker on the airshow. About 5 minutes
before landing, the Captain made announcement we had a navigational problem
that needed to be looked at before we crossed the ocean. We were all
watching the guys when they were told we were landing, and none reacted
abnormally. We moved a very muscular passenger to seat 1E on the aisle and
an SA to seat 1A and told them we had security issues and if anyone not in
uniform came up the aisle towards the cockpit, they were to try and do
anything to stop them. We also moved one of the F/As sitting up front (she
is 5 foot and weighs about 100 pounds) to another jumpseat and moved another
male F/A up front so there were three guys in the jumpseats by the cockpit.
Having done that, we realized Karen, the F/A we moved, was so pissed off at
these guys, she could have beat the shit out of all of them. The one nervous
Nellie F/A who walked around with the ice mallet for the last two hours of
the flight, we kept in the back where if anything did happen, he could
scream and hit himself with the mallet. The Captain informed me just about
everyone would meet the airplane. Knowing UAL, I was expecting a CSR
Supervisor to come on and ask these passengers if they were terrorists and
if not, would they like to join Mileage Plus....
The landing was normal, and very quiet on the plane since it was 0300 and
most passengers were asleep when we woke them. We pulled to the gate, but
the jetway didn't come toward us for two minutes. I looked out and saw about
30 swat team guys in flak jackets and machine guns. Well, I guess everyone
figured out at this point it was not a navigational problem. As I went to
door 2, the guy in 8A was staring out the window at our welcoming party. The
guy in 14D was on his mobile phone and he was later observed hiding the
phone in the pillow when the armed guys came on board. 20 swat team guys
boarded the plane, ten down each aisle with guns ready. Most of the
passengers were pretty freaked by this. The police took the three guys off.
We had to help them find all their carry on. Most of the passengers were
very helpful in trying to ID their hand carry on as we really had no idea of
what was theirs.
The FBI, TSA, Joint Terrorism Task Force Rep, Boston Police, Airport
Police and Massachusetts State Troopers interviewed the Captain, the two
F/As who had the most contact with them and me for two hours. The FBI also
interviewed the passengers sitting around the guys. The FBI asked the
Captain when he realized the severity of the situation, and he replied,
"When he saw the fear in the eyes of his crew..."after the three of us
(F/As) threw up, we told our story...what really happened!
By the time we got back to the plane, UAL Ops had shown up and arranged
for the passengers to go to hotels for an 1100 departure to continue to
London with a new crew. Of course, we then had to wait for immigration to
show up since all the non-US and greencard holders were now reentering the
US and had to fill out I-94 forms as new visitors and be fingerprinted and
photographed again.
We finally got to the hotel around 0730 and I was on the phone for the
next two hours talking to our office in London, to the AFA, and scheduling.
Scheduling called Toby to let him know what was going on since I hadn't had
a chance to call him yet. It was wonderful to talk to him and I felt safe
for the first time in hours on hearing his voice. By the time we got to the
hotel, we were already on the news, and several hours later, we heard the
passengers were interviewed, cleared and released. The FBI told me they felt
they were on a test run surveillance flight, observing and watching our
routine and looking for weaknesses in our security. All the authorities
reassured us we did the right thing
and that was backed up by the passengers who thanked us and said that they
were so glad we watching out for their well being. I think as F/As, we sense
when something just isn't right, and this flight had too many small
incidents that didn't add up, and thankfully, we acted on our feelings.
We had a lovely lobster dinner (which I think UAL should have bought for
us, but didn't), Boston EAP got hold of us to see if we needed anything,
BOSSW checked up on us and a LHRSW Supervisor called. So, after a nice
deadhead home the next day via IAD, Toby met me outside of customs with a
bouquet of flowers and we took the tube (which was up and running, but now
with armed police at all the stations) home. Now, it's time to write the
reports. We were supposed to go to Norway on Wednesday for a few days, but
had to cancel since I didn't get home until Wednesday night. It would have
been such a nice relaxing time...maybe next time!
You all fly safe and keep your eyes open because the bad guys really are
out there and watching us!
Take care...
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Kealey" <cwkealey@atlanticbb.net>
To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Monday, August 08, 2005 6:06 PM
Subject: Re: [MV] Military travel in 2005
> The really IMPRESSIVE part of all this is that the rules only apply to
> outgoing
> flights.
>
> My wife's nephew just arrived a little over a month ago from Europe and
> had one
> layover, again in Europe. NO shake down and very fast boarding at both
> airports
> in Europe.
>
> He did not observe any personal security check coming to DC.
>
> However, upon leaving D.C. last week he had to get to the airport 3 hours
> before
> the flight to check in. Then waited for several hours to go through the
> lines
> to the boarding area. Then he had to take off his shoes and remove all
> metal
> objects from his pockets and carry on bags. What a sad joke.
>
> We watched people taking off belts because of the belt buckles and other
> things.
>
> Truely amazing what we will go through to pretend to be safe and secure.
>
> Sorry, this just strikes me as ridiculous. Former law enforcement officer
> and
> all that. <Sad Grin>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Employee at MILVEHCO" <milveh@dslextreme.com>
> To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
> Sent: Monday, August 08, 2005 8:20 PM
> Subject: [MV] Military travel in 2005
>
>
> Before deploying from Savannah, Georgia to Iraq by a chartered airliner;
> the troops of the 48th Brigade Combat Team, a National Guard unit, had to
> go through the same security checks as any other passengers.
>
> Lt. Col. John King, the unit's commander, told his 280 fellow soldiers
> that FAA anti-hijacking regulations require passengers to surrender pocket
> knives, nose hair scissors and cigarette lighters. "If you have any of
> those things," he said, almost apologetically, "put them in this box now."
>
> The troops were, however, allowed to keep their assault rifles, body
> armour, helmets, pistols, bayonets and combat shotguns.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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>
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Fri Oct 28 2005 - 23:25:27 PDT