FAs be vigiliant

Jetsetter2Ord

Senior
Sep 1, 2005
284
3
On a Jetplane
Kudos to the crew that encountered this posted on an AFA website.

"Hello, all.
I just wanted to share with you what went on our flight on (8/18) PHX to CLE.

We were doing a CLE turn, and were full going out from PHX. There were several "suspicious" passengers onboard the aircraft, and we all communicated that between ourselves and the flight deck. Luckily, we had an FFDO and a LEO (FBI) onboard as well.
There were 2 pretty strange guys on, one seated in row 15, another at 23. They didn't appear to know one another, and had no interaction. There was a family that spoke arabic seated in 24, which proved to be pretty valuable, although we were pretty suspicious of some of the members of that family originally due to some stange "looks" that we were getting from some members of the family.
The male pax from 23 came back to the lav after the male pax from 15. He had to wait to get into the lav, as there was the ususal line.
He had a bag with him, and when I questioned him on whether he was waiting to use the lav, and he said yes, I then asked what was in the bag. He said it was a camera.
I told him that electronic devices were not allowed to be carried into the lav, and he beligerently asked what he was supposed to do with it, and I replied that he would have to leave it on the outside of the lav.
That all being said and done, the female pax from the family in 24 came back and was scared out of her mind regarding this pax in 23. She said that the man from 15 had come up to the man at 23 and nodded toward the lav, and the male pax in 23 had just replied "after you".
We were, of course, relaying all of this to the flight deck. The LEO came back to use the lav, and I brought her into the whole thing, and she said that she would like to detain these pax upon landing and question them. She told me to call the flight deck and inform them of her decision and to have the appropriate authorities meet the flight. We all worked out the details of who was getting up first, who was staying on last (the witness in 24), and how it would be handled.
They apprehended to two men from 15 and 23. The police brought on a bomb-snifffing dog, and then the local office of the FBI showed up.
Of course, we will never probably know what, if anything, was going on. However, the pax in 23 had a ticket to DCA. And, both suspicious pax had mexican money, and arabic names.
Long story, I know.
But, be careful out there and seriously monitor the cabin for these seemingly unrelated persons and actions.Write up all suspicious pax, and keep yourself and your planes safe. We all felt "creeped out" and definitely felt like they may have been testing us."

Continue to be vigilant while out there all!
 
Kudos to the crew that encountered this posted on an AFA website.

But, be careful out there and seriously monitor the cabin for these seemingly unrelated persons and actions.Write up all suspicious pax, and keep yourself and your planes safe. We all felt "creeped out" and definitely felt like they may have been testing us."

Continue to be vigilant while out there all!

Whomever posted that to the AFA website needs to take advantage of whatever EAP is available to them. Irrational paranoia has no place among professionals.
 
Whomever posted that to the AFA website needs to take advantage of whatever EAP is available to them. Irrational paranoia has no place among professionals.

Quite the contrary!

There is no such thing as a "little paranoia" in todays aviation industry. This observation is NOT "irrational".

Having a mind-set of "complacency" is more dangerous and "irresponsible".
 
This isn't vigilance; this is paranoid fantasies come to life. The FAs really should go back to reading their People and US Weekly instead of daydreaming that every pax using the lav is a terrorist.
 
Clearly, anyone taking a photo of an airline lav is a terrorist. Ever thought that maybe he didn't want to leave his valuable camera lying around the seat or overhead compartment? I've had a $400 digital camera stolen from the Row 4 overhead bin on United when I went back to use a lav. That's the last time I leave my seat without my camera - and no, I'm not packing it in my checked bags, are you crazy?

Why would it be suspicious that they had Mexican money? Ever thought they might have just connected off the numerous US flights from Mexico?
 
FWAAA,

I think that making a bomb out of liquid in a small water bottle would have been a "paranoid fantasy"...yesterday.

But its REALITY TODAY!
 
This isn't vigilance; this is paranoid fantasies come to life. The FAs really should go back to reading their People and US Weekly instead of daydreaming that every pax using the lav is a terrorist.
FWAAA,
Sadly, the world we live in requires these "paranoid fantasies" to be checked out to the fullest extent.
[Especially when you are flying thru the air at 500 mph in a aluminum tube.]"
 
Clearly, anyone taking a photo of an airline lav is a terrorist. Ever thought that maybe he didn't want to leave his valuable camera lying around the seat or overhead compartment?
Ever think that he only said it was a camera and that there could have been something else in the bag instead?!?
It doesn't sound like the F/A actually got to see if it was a camera or not.
 
FWAAA,

I think that making a bomb out of liquid in a small water bottle would have been a "paranoid fantasy"...yesterday.

But its REALITY TODAY!

Read http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/08/17/fl...et_terror_labs/ and you will quickly discover the fallacy of this whole liquid bomb thing. If the guy gets up with both bags of ice from the galley and heads to the lav with an entire chemistry set, get worried.

Absent that, the whole "no liquid" thing is just the government trying to make the lemmings feel safer.

It's basically impossible to mix up enough TATP to bring down an airliner while on the airliner without killing oneself first in the process. That, and you would have to have gallons of the stuff strategically placed in order to actually down the aircraft.

This whole thing is an excuse for people like BAA and the airlines to force people to check everything and for paranoid flight crew to once again harass anyone who has the good sense to take their expensive stuff to the lav with them (being too busy profiling anyone with dark skin to ensure one pax is not busy ripping off the other who is using the lav).

But hey--remain "paranoid" if you really feel it adds anything to flight safety. The actual useful items in that regard started with hardened flight deck doors and ended with FAMs. Everything else (and since) has been window dressing (as mentioned above, to make the lemmings feel safe).
 
The fact is that it was a LEO who decided to detain and it was an Arabic-speaking family who provided a huge tip as to what was said.

How many times have you ever seen a passenger head to the lav, not and speak to someone supposedly totally unrealted, and have the seated person tell the lav bound person that he would go "after you".

I didn't think so.
 
Read http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/08/17/fl...et_terror_labs/ and you will quickly discover the fallacy of this whole liquid bomb thing. If the guy gets up with both bags of ice from the galley and heads to the lav with an entire chemistry set, get worried.

Absent that, the whole "no liquid" thing is just the government trying to make the lemmings feel safer.

Perhaps clue, there wouldn't have to spend hundreds of BILLIONS (no end in site) for IRAQ where those people are no more free and deomocratic than Lebanon, and use these moneis instead to secure our borders and create the equipment that would make our transportation system much more secure than it is today.

The IRAQIs as well as the Lebanon people are aligned with anyone or group who "shows them the money".
 
The fact is that it was a LEO who decided to detain and it was an Arabic-speaking family who provided a huge tip as to what was said.

How many times have you ever seen a passenger head to the lav, not and speak to someone supposedly totally unrealted, and have the seated person tell the lav bound person that he would go "after you".

I didn't think so.

When I read about it in the paper, I'll believe the account. With that said, when I see someone between me and the lav jump up and head for it, I often throw 'em a nod and say "go ahead" or something to that effect. The caveat is that it's usually the front lav (F).

The "I didn't think so" is cute, but it indicates that you don't often actually see what's happening on your own flights. Not paranoid enough, apparently.

And that fact that a LEO made the decisioin to detain means nothing to me. A LEO recently profiled and then detained the ACLU's national coordinator against racial profiling (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/17/washington/17screeners.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ei=5094&en=0d7d13a17ac78eb2&hp&ex=1155873600&partner=homepage)
. Oops. So I guess we can take the "a LEO did it, so it must be legitimate" gushing and put it away.....
 

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