Flight Attendant Charged In Bomb Threat

[TWAnr]

Spoken like a defense lawyer

Do you remember the bombing in the Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, in the opening days of the 1996 Olympic Games?

They needed a scapegoat to assure the public that everything was under control, so they arrested and charged Richard Jewell, the security guard who found the backpack containing the bomb shortly before it exploded, based upon some junk science that he fit the profile of a "lone bomber" who seeks to become a hero.

Eventually Jewell was exonerated and seven years later Eric Robert Rudolph was charged with committing that crime. Rudolph is also pending trial for the 1997 bombings at a gay nightclub and a clinic that performed abortions in the Atlanta area; and a bombing at a clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1998.

 

[L1011Ret]

From 33000 to landing in 7 minutes. The Captain was TWA.

 

[JXCAP]

L1011Ret

You beat me to it. Sure makes me proud to be a red guy. I heard Dispatch tried to make him go to another airport and he said hell no, I am landing at the closest airport. Just think if a lessor pilot had been at the controls and it was a real bomb. That plane and all the pax could have been spred all over Tennessee.

 

[FWAAA]

Come on everyone, she has yet to have her day in court. Just because she has been charged, does not necessarily mean that she has actually done it. None of the articles which I have read discuss what evidence the government has which points to her as the culprit.

I agree with your well-thought out cautions regarding her guilt or innocence, but nearly every article have seen says she admitted writing the note.

Of course, even confessions don't always guarantee a guilty verdict. B)

 

[L1011Ret]

JXCAP, now that - JXCAP - is something I've not heard of in a while though I have some JXCAPs of my last flights upstairs. I cannot imagine why dispatch would push for anything but the nearest suitable in point of time. Can you imagine the liability for such a decision if something did go wrong while they were flying to the dispatch specified airport? Hopefully Captains still have the authority to act like Captains, especially when needed. We used to have lots of discussions about Captain's authority, its limits and boundaries. Sometimes they were heated, but I think we all learned from them. Still honored to have had membership with the best of the best.

 

[goingboeing]

Just another example of a disgruntled employee and what's bad there are more like her out there.[male and female]

 

[kirkpatrick]

This person is more than disgruntled. There's got to be something wrong upstairs.

MK

 

[WingNaPrayer]

From 33000 to landing in 7 minutes. The Captain was TWA.

Good thing the bomb wasn't real . . . or altitude sensitive!

 

[BDLDFW]

My, they really ARE getting bored on these flights!

Bring back meal service, give them something better to do with their time.

Perhaps she was "overtired", and reasoned that with a diversion, they might FEED the crew.

I believe she wasn't working.

 

[AAStew]

I think she was deadheading...which essentially does make her part of the NS.

 

[JXCAP]

L1011ret,

Sorry to say that Captains authority went out the window with the buyout. Don't know if you were there during the "Two great airlines one great future" lie but hopefully you were not. AA omitted all the "SCD" (Subject to Captains Discretion" verbiage out of our policy manual. You almost have to ask permission just to go to the lav. at AA. Remember at TWA when if say the galley wasn't stocked and some suit wanted you to take a 4 hour flight with no ice. Well most guys (Captains) just said "nope" I'll wait for the ice, and guess what, the ice showed up and the pax were happy and the F/A's didn't get abused by a bunch of unhappy pax., Plus we all were very proactive on making up the time once airborne by using a multitude of tools to trim off some flight time, without asking mommy, I mean dispatch, if we were allowed to, or (and this is a biggie), if you wanted to add a couple thousand pounds of gas because you could see that they didn't add enough due to circumstances only a pilot with decades of experience could see coming, you just told the fueler or the load controller and it was done. No questions asked. Not at AA, you have to ask permission from the dispatcher and give him your reason, as if his butt was sitting in the cockpit and not yours. I flew under the new rules for 2 years before they put me on the street, and I'll tell you what, my brain went numb because they took all the thinking out of the job. Getting laid off was a godsend, because I no longer had to work in the most god awful environment I had ever worked in, (like when one of the AA pilots took a swing at one of our guys in an elevator, missed and hit one of our female F/A's in the face, what a man), plus I was furloughed into a raise with my new co. after the gutting of their latest contract.

Just before I was layed off though, I did see that some of the less arrogant union reps. started listening to some of our guys, and specifically started addressing the Captains authority issue. Hopefully if and when I go back, they will have adopted some of the tried and true policy's that earned us several JDPower awards in a row before they took over.

 

[jsn25911]

Guys - I just read this and found out it was a TWA pilot that landing in just 7 minutes and demanded to get to the first airport - when I read this I had such pride in our guys! I was so proud you would have thought I was "the next of kin!" I know I am just a TWA f/a, but this made my day. Is it possible to know who the pilot was? I sure do miss everyone.

 

[twasilverbullet]

Guys - I just read this and found out it was a TWA pilot that landing in just 7 minutes and demanded to get to the first airport - when I read this I had such pride in our guys! I was so proud you would have thought I was "the next of kin!" I know I am just a TWA f/a, but this made my day. Is it possible to know who the pilot was? I sure do miss everyone.

According to the news media the captain was :censored: exTWA

jsn, I sent the information to your pm.

 

[mweiss]

I sure hope that there aren't any FAs out there stupid enough to have done this, but if she really did, she deserves to lose her job and have the book thrown at her. She is charged with being a safety officer in the air, and such behavior is beyond reprehensible.

 

[jimntx]

I sure hope that there aren't any FAs out there stupid enough to have done this, but if she really did, she deserves to lose her job and have the book thrown at her. She is charged with being a safety officer in the air, and such behavior is beyond reprehensible.

Oh no, it definitely was a flight attendant who did it. However, it is not clear whether she was non-revving or deadheading. The news reports simply said a "non-working flight attendant." Even though she lives in Arlington, TX, she might be based in Boston and was just commuting to work.

It will be interesting to find out her motivation for the act, if we ever do.