From The Chicago Tribune:
Police: ‘Suspicious activity’ on Chicago-bound plane was just someone watching news on phone
Four people were removed from a Chicago-bound flight in Baltimore Tuesday morning, and the plane delayed for three hours, after a woman became suspicious of a man who appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent and who was watching the news on his phone, according to authorities and several passengers.
The woman grabbed her young daughter and rushed to the back of the plane, where she reported the man’s “suspicious behavior,” according to Sgt. Jonathan Green, a spokesman for the Maryland Transportation Authority, which patrols the Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.
The plane, Spirit Airlines Flight 969, was already taxiing down the runway. The captain decided to return to the gate and the man and two others in his row, another man and a woman, were removed, along with a man sitting behind them, Green said.
According to several passengers, names of four to five other people were later called out over the PA system and they were removed as well. But they apparently were allowed to continue on the flight, which didn’t leave Baltimore until three hours later after the plane and luggage had been checked.
One of the men was released about 10:45 a.m. and the other three about an hour later with no charges, Green said.
“We did not find any criminal activity or violations of any kind and they were free to do what they pleased at that point,” Green said. “One of the three males was sitting next to a female passenger and apparently he was watching a media report. I don’t know of what nature it was, but given current events, I can imagine what it was.
“Being in her shoes, I’m guessing that combined with what she saw or heard created some concerns for her,” Green said. “She told the flight crew, which was most likely a flight attendant, and they spoke to the captain and the captain made the choice to go back to the terminal.”
—snip—
“They were gearing up to take off when the woman with her child got up and walked very briskly to the back of the plane to the bathroom,” Farella said. “The flight attendants were on the PA pretty aggressively telling them to sit down and she ignored them, kept walking and that’s when I started panicking.”
—snip—
Farella and other passengers thought the airline and police handled the situation well.
“I think someone’s doing their job and I’m liking it,” said Spencer Padgett. “You don’t pay much to fly on Spirit but I got every penny’s worth today.”
Tilesha Northern, an attorney from North Carolina, said officials indicated to her that it was a matter of “see something, say something.”
“The first people to get called were of Middle Eastern descent,” she noted.
“There’s no burden to provide more detailed information about them,” [an official] said. “We’re not getting into the finer details on the individuals other than they were all adult, three males, one female. I would add that the three of the four were traveling together and the fourth just happened to take a seat next to the other group of three.
“Regardless of how this turned out here, it’s still important if people see something, combined with their experience, that if something doesn’t seem right that they should say something,” Green said. “It’s better to have something investigated and cleared.”
No comment needed other than the title of this post.
Except…this kind of shit is precisely the aim of modern terrorism. No matter how much damage has been done by terrorist actions over the past couple of decades, you are less likely to be directly involved in any terrorist action whatsoever while w/in the confines of most sovereign countries than you are to be hit by lightning or a meteor.
You…we …are all guilty until proven innocent now.
All of us.
Our digital communications are tapped, no matter what the “courts” say. There is somewhere a digital dossier on each and every one of us that has ever used the internet. Bet on it. “Oh, I’m not worried!!! I’m no criminal or terrorist!!!” you say? “I just watch the news and post on a few blogs.”
Riiiight…
WTFU.
Martin Niemöller (1892-1984) was a prominent Protestant pastor who emerged as an outspoken public foe of Adolf Hitler and spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in concentration camps.
“FIRST THEY CAME FOR THE SOCIALISTS.”
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out– Because I was not a Socialist.Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out– Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out– Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me–and there was no one left to speak for me.
WTFU.
AG
