Mans uses bathroom on plane, fighter jets called out

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

Three passengers on an American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Kennedy Airport caused a scare by behaving suspiciously in a bathroom, sources said.

One source said they locked themselves in, another said they were going in and out of the restroom.

NORAD said fighter jets escorted the plane to JFK, where it landed safely just before 4:30 p.m.

Air Marshals were on board, law enforcement sources said.

American Airlines spokeswoman Andrea Huguely said the Boeing 767 was not in any danger.

"The captain and crew assessed the situation and they did not feel as though there was a security issue on board," she said.

"People have walked off the plane normally," she said.

There were at least two other major security incidents around the U.S. amid widespread jitters over a possible terror strike on the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

In Los Angeles, part of the city's Koreatown neighborhood was shut down Saturday night after a 62-year-old man planted a fake bomb on a bus, sheriff's officials said.

Frightened passengers were evacuated from the bus at around 6 p.m. after Eugenio Paredes came aboard carrying a shady-looking suitcase with exposed wires and began threatening the driver, cops said.

Metro trains and buses were diverted from the area for about four hours while police investigated the scene.
Paredes was arrested suspicion of making a terrorist threat and possession of a hoax device.

Earlier Saturday, a Southwest Airlines plane traveling from Albuquerque to Baltimore was forced to land in Nashville after the flight crew reported that a man was acting strangely.

The flight remained on the ground for about two hours, and a suspicious package was found near the rear bathroom, officials said.

FBI officials in Nashville told The Tennessean newspaper that the package turned out to be "non-explosive."

Flight attendants had become spooked after a man went to the bathroom twice, once while the plane was on the ground and once while in flight, Southwest officials said.

The unidentified flyer was detained and interviewed in Nashville and then later cleared to fly. He was not charged with a crime.

Meanwhile, the other 117 passengers were rescreened by security before boarding again.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2011/09/11/2011-09-11_passengers_cause_security_scare_on_american_air lines_flight_34_by_behaving_suspi.html#ixzz1XgMrhT UR

[Aurora]

Mile high club is an al qaeda front

[Robocommie]

Americans: Literally scared shitless

[Commissar Rykov]

That must be awkward. I would have to use the bathroom quite a bit on a flight as well due to medication so I would be a terror suspect? Or would my being white make me exempt? Now that is the real question.

[Metacomet]

So the morons who reported it (see something, say something) have to pay for the fighter jets right?

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

It gets much worse:

DETROIT (AP) — A U.S. woman said Tuesday that she endured nearly four hours in police custody that included being forced off an airplane in handcuffs, strip-searched and interrogated at Detroit's airport on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks — all, she believes, because of her Middle Eastern appearance.

Shoshana Hebshi, 35, told The Associated Press she was one of three people removed from a Denver-to-Detroit Frontier Airlines flight after landing Sunday afternoon. Authorities say fighter jets escorted the plane after its crew reported that two people were spending a long time in a bathroom — the two men sitting next to Hebshi in the 12th row.

Hebshi said she didn't notice how many times the men went to the bathroom. "I wasn't keeping track," she said.

"I really wasn't paying attention," said Hebshi, a freelance writer, editor and stay-at-home mother of twin six-year-old boys who lives in a suburb of Toledo, Ohio. "I was minding my own business — sleeping, reading, playing on my phone."

The FBI has said the three didn't know each other. One man felt ill and got up to use the restroom and another man in the same row also left his seat to go to the bathroom. The FBI said they never were inside together.

Hebshi has written extensively on her blog about the incident, saying she felt "violated, humiliated and sure that I was being taken from the plane simply because of my appearance."

Hebshi, who describes herself as half-Arabic, half-Jewish with a dark complexion, told the AP after they landed, she noticed police first surrounding, then storming the plane. She said she was surprised when they stopped at her row and ordered her and the men to get up.

Her Twitter posts from Sunday bear that out. At one point, she wrote: "A little concerned about this situation. Plane moved away from terminal surrounded by cops. Crew is mum. Passengers can't get up."

Later she wrote, "I see stairs coming our way...yay!" Her last post said, "Majorly armed cops coming aboard."

It's then than she says the officers ordered her and the men, whom she described as Indian, to get up.

She said she was patted down and taken by car to a holding cell. A uniformed female officer eventually came in and told Hebshi to take off her clothes.

After the strip search, another officer who identified herself as a Homeland Security agent led Hebshi to another room, Hebshi said. There, a man who identified himself as an FBI agent asked her a series of questions while a female agent took notes, Hebshi said.

Hebshi said that when she asked what was going on, the male agent told her someone on the plane reported that she and the men on her row were "conducting suspicious activity."

FBI spokeswoman Sandra Berchtold said the three passengers were questioned but not arrested before the FBI determined there was no reason to suspect or hold them. She also said FBI agents who questioned the passengers were not involved in any strip searches.

"We received a report of suspicious activity on that particular plane," Berchtold said. "We did not arrest ... these passengers. ... We didn't direct anybody to arrest them."

Airport police are under the supervision of the Wayne County Airport Authority, which operates Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

In an email to the AP, agency spokesman Scott Wintner said airport police "responded appropriately by following protocol and treating everyone involved with respect and dignity. "

Wintner said the decision on how to respond was a call made by the Airport Authority's CEO, who he said is Arab-American.

Hebshi said that finally, after being fingerprinted and allowed to call her husband, she was told she and the men were being released and that nothing suspicious was found on the plane. She said an official apologized and thanked her for understanding and cooperating.

Hebshi said she received another call of apology from an FBI agent Monday, before she wrote her blog post.

"I can understand they were just doing their job," she told the AP. "My beef is with these laws and regulations that are so hypersensitive. ... Even if you're an innocent bystander, you have no rights."

AP left email and phone messages seeking comment Tuesday night with Frontier.

The flight was one of two for which fighter jets were scrambled Sunday after crews reported suspicious activity on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, officials said. In both cases, it involved bathroom use. In neither case did authorities find anything to substantiate the suspicions.

On American Airlines flight 34 from Los Angeles, three passengers who made repeated trips to the bathroom were cleared after the plane safely landed at New York's Kennedy Airport.

Also Sunday, a GoJet Airlines flight bound for Washington was still on the runway in St. Louis when the pilot returned the aircraft to the gate and requested all passengers be re-screened after crew found paper towels stuffed in a toilet, according to a United Airlines spokesman. GoJet is a regional carrier for United.

[tanklv]

All I can say is simply: Disgusting.

This is not the country I was born into nearly sixty years ago...

I am sooo fucking ashamed and disgusted with my country...

[the last donut of the night]

well that country's just gone down the toilet

[the last donut of the night]

all this racism poops me out

[Nehru]

Goes on to show that authority is evil.

[rebel]

Well done fellow americans. You never fail to disappoint when it comes to giving into fear mongering. No wonder the rest of the world thinks your stupid and ignorant.

[SexyJesus]

Of course a woman who looked to be of Middle Eastern descent was also taken into custody even though she didn't know either men and was not in the restroom during the duration of the flight. Also the 2 men turned out to be Indians.