Archive » Airline Security

Just heard Washington Times reporter Bill Gertz tease a disturbing story on FOX News a few minutes ago. He said he’ll have a piece in the paper tomorrow about a Delta flight to Salt Lake City, Utah, that was diverted last week when a laser penetrated the cockpit. He reported that the pilot was injured [...]

Unbelievable: Maryland Teacher Faces Possible $10,000 Fine For Bookmark
Kathryn Harrington, 52, of Laurel, Md., was flying home from vacation last month when airport screeners found her bookmark.
They thought the 8?-inch leather strap, with small lead weights at each end, resembled a weapon that could be used to knock people unconscious.
Airport police charged the teacher with [...]

My friend Michael Smerconish, Philly talk show host and columnist, has a soon-to-be New York Times bestseller coming out this week on the p.c. perils of airport security. His important book is called Flying Blind and government officials are already attacking Smerconish for advocating common-sense profiling. Department of Transportation spokesman Brian Turmail told the Boston [...]

Who needs Norm Mineta? Jonathan O’Keefe sends a link to this new citizens’ effort to take individual responsibility for airline security: Check it out.

The New York Times reports that Transportation Security Agency officials will take over screening of passengers on New York City helicopter tours. The new policy comes on the heels of intelligence suggesting that al Qaeda may utilize such helicopters to carry out terrorist attacks.
What kind of checks were being done by the private helicopter-tour firms [...]

A plague of persistent P.C. follies in America’s airports…
The invaluable Heather Mac Donald weighs in on the sacrifice of the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System, or Capps II, at the hands of the civil liberties brigade.

Annie Jacobsen and Clint Taylor follow-up on Flight 327. Time magazine talks to a federal air marshal who was on [...]

On July 26, the ambassador of Syria had an outraged letter published in the Washington Times regarding Northwest Flight 327:
I am responding to Audrey Hudson’s article “Scouting jetliners for new attacks” (Page 1, Thursday). We are shocked by this article. It only reflects paranoia verging on the point of hysterics. The woman mentioned most prominently [...]

Looks like Washington is paying attention to the Annie Jacobsen story. The Washington Times reports that “federal officials were summoned to Capitol Hill yesterday to brief Senate and House Judiciary Committee staff in response to reports of the incident, and the Federal Air Marshals Association requested a meeting with top officials in the Homeland Security [...]

In an article published late Friday night, “Misbehaving Syrians Carried Expired Visas (registration required),” the Dallas Morning News confirmed that 13 members of Nour Mehana had expired visas at the time of their June 29 flight on Northwest 327:
Thirteen Syrian musicians whose behavior aboard a June flight stirred suspicions and talks of “dry runs” entered [...]

Following the lead of anonymous air marshals (see Eric Leonard’s KFI news story), some in the blogosphere are piling on Annie Jacobsen. One blogger calls her a “sniveling little twit.” Kevin Drum pooh-poohs “Panic in the Skies.” Armed Liberal advises Annie to take a “chill pill.” And Commissar at Politburo Diktat writes:
We are freaking out. [...]

WNBC investigative reporter Scott Weinberger reported on Joe Scarborough’s MSNBC show tonight that the 14 Syrians on Northwest Flight 327 ALL had expired visas. He said his sources told him that law enforcement officials xeroxed the men’s paperwork without looking at the dates. The visas had expired nearly a month earlier, according to Weinberger.
This does [...]

National Review Online has just posted an article by Clint Taylor, who seems to have identified the mystery band on Flight 327. Will have more after the kids are asleep, but it looks like Taylor has done the sleuthing that the deep-pocketed mainstream media wasn’t interested in doing (and all it took was Google and [...]

The New York Times ran a piece today by Joe Sharkey purporting to report on “What Really Happened” on Flight 327 with the 14 Syrian passengers observed by writer Annie Jacobsen. The piece skews toward the Nothing Happened camp and concludes with a quote from Federal Air Marshal spokesman Dave Adams saying: “They gave their [...]

Just watched the excellent special report on MSNBC hosted by Joe Scarborough regarding Annie and Kevin Jacobsen’s account of what they saw on Northwest Flight 327. I am going to keep this short and simple, as this will be my last blogword on the matter unless anything new breaks.
I believe the Jacobsens. [...]

Via Michael Smerconish’s radio show this morning, we learn that Annie Jacobsen will be posting a follow-up to her Terror In The Skies, Again article at womenswallstreet.com around 9amPST/12noonEST.
Jacobsen’s parents e-mailed me some family background:
Annie Jacobsen is our daughter!! She is NOT the science fiction writer nor the psychic (with the same name). [...]

Mark Bogosian, an American Airlines pilot, is co-author of a helpful book for airline passengers. It’s Never Again: A Self-Defense Guide for the Flying Public. His co-authors are a SWAT team leader and a police commander. “Unless law enforcement is aboard, passengers and flight attendants are the first line of defense,” Bogosian notes.
Along with disarming [...]

Ok, the kids are asleep.
1) Skeptics (yeah, even the ones who hate my guts) are having an interesting discussion here.
2) Still no word from any other passengers. It’s possible that after Jacobsen appears on the networks, folks will come forward.
3) Reader Liz Roewe has sent several questions to the editors of WomensWallStreet.com and [...]

I have been speaking with Brendi Rawlin of Porter Novelli (PR rep for Womens Wall Street). According to Brendi, the Washington Post has been sitting on the true story of Annie Jacobsen’s “Terror in the Skies” account since last Friday, when WomensWallStreet.com approached him. Dave Adams, the air marshal’s spokesman, not only confirmed the story, [...]

Regarding Annie Jacobsen’s intriguing article, I just got word from Dave Adams of the Federal Air Marshals Service (FAM). Adams confirmed that he spoke to Annie Jacobsen, was quoted accurately in her story, and confirmed some of the basic facts outlined in her article (there were 14 Syrians on the flight; they were questioned by [...]

Several readers have sent me the link to this fascinating article from WomensWallStreet.com, which brings to mind James Woods’ experience prior to September 11, 2001.
Update: Over at Redstate, Martinipundit says the story is a hoax (hat tip: Instapundit).
Update II: Reader Liz Roewe cc’d me on an e-mail to the editors of WomensWallStreet.com. [...]

Longtime readers know I’m an avid fisher. So you can understand the sympathy I feel for this poor guy, who caught a beautiful 40-pound halibut in Alaska, had it wrapped and packed in two ice chests to share with friends and family in Seattle, and then had the fish stolen by baggage handlers at the [...]

Investigative journalist Paul Sperry reports on a Customs memo ordering airport immigration inspectors to be on the lookout for Pakistani visitors who might have attended terrorist training camps:
In an unusual move, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has ordered inspectors at America’s largest airports to examine all travelers of Pakistani descent — including U.S. citizens — [...]

My friend Michael Smerconish, Philly talk show host and columnist, has been all over a story ignored by the mainstream media: punitive measures by the federal goverment that result in fines for airlines who pull more than two young Arab males out of line for increased security questioning. It’s a reverse racial profiling quota program [...]