US plane diverted in bomb scare

[Airbubba]

January 18, 2004

Security Concerns Divert Plane to Ireland

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 9:08 a.m. ET

DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) -- A Delta Airlines jet traveling from Germany to the United States made an emergency landing in Ireland Sunday because of security concerns, airport authorities said.

The Frankfurt to Atlanta flight landed at Shannon airport in the west of Ireland and the 147 passengers were taken off while the plane was searched, airport operating company Aer Rianta said.

Irish police said the landing was ``security-related,'' but no other details were immediately available

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Ireland-Plane-Diverted.html


______________________________________________


Emergency services keep away from bomb plane
online.ie
2004-01-18 14:20:02+00

A Delta airline flight from Frankfurt to Atlanta has landed at Shannon Airport after a bomb scare on board.

Garda' and the fire brigade are at the scene.

The decision to land was taken when the plane's crew found a note in the toilet written on toilet paper saying there was a bomb on board.

It landed safely at 12.38pm and all 147 passengers on board were evacuated ten minutes later.

The aircraft remains on the taxiway at the airport and won't be inspected until the scheduled flight time elapses in five or six hours.

All emergency services except for one fire truck are keeping their distance.


http://www.online.ie/news/viewer.adp?article=3068144

[rotornut]

US plane diverted in bomb scare

A Delta Airlines plane travelling from Germany to the US has made an emergency landing in Ireland after a bomb scare.
Flight 27 was on its way from Frankfurt to Atlanta when it was diverted to Shannon airport in western Ireland.

The 147 passengers and crew were taken off the plane so that security officials could conduct a search.

A spokesman for the Irish airports authority Aer Rianta said the army bomb squad had been called in and the search was expected to take several hours.

Delta Airlines said the Boeing 767-300 jet landed at Shannon at about 1245 GMT, three hours after it took off from Frankfurt.

Irish police said the landing was "security-related", but gave no further details.


Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/3407881.stm

Published: 2004/01/18 15:15:10 GMT

© BBC MMIV

[hobie]

RTE link .....

http://www.rte.ie/news/2004/0118/shannon.html

[redandwhite]

They only started unloading the baggage at 1930, when the aircraft was due to be on the ground in the USA, they’re still at it as I write.

Reckon that all pax will have to identify baggage and then wait for it to be searched.

After being questioned all day, if they do find who put the note in the toilet, they should hand him over to the pax for instant justice.
:E

[Nollaig]

This just in from http://www.rte.ie/news

German arrested over Shannon hoax
January 19, 2004


A 19-year-old German national has been arrested by garda' investigating the circumstances that led to the grounding of an American airliner at Shannon.

He was arrested under the provisions of Section Three of the Air Navigation Act of 1975 and is being held at Shannon Garda Station. It is understood the person detained may have been a passenger on the plane.

The Delta Airlines Boeing 767, with 147 people on board, had been en route from Frankfurt to Atlanta when a note was found claiming there was a bomb on the flight.

Garda' and army bomb disposal experts who searched the plane at Shannon found nothing suspicious. It was due to resume its journey at midday.


This page : http://www.rte.ie/news/2004/0119/shannon.html

[loewy]

Let's hope this idiot gets the punishment he deserves and serves as a deterrent to other potential hoaxers !

Well done gardai...

L

[Airbubba]

>>Let's hope this idiot gets the punishment he deserves and serves as a deterrent to other potential hoaxers !<<

Yeah, let's hope he gets more than the "protester" who did $500K damage to a 737 on January 29, 2002 at SNN. She claimed she was demonstrating her opposition to the U.S. military so she walked with a minor fine.

Maybe this guy will claim he's against global warming and cop a walk...

[Speed of Sound]

"protester"

So if she wasn't a protester, what was she then?

SoS

[Basil]

How about a vandal.

[Airbubba]

Delta 9609, EINN-KATL, is about to report 30W at FL300. They should be in Atlanta around 2315Z.

[hobie]

it would be interesting to know what the likely Legal penalty would be for writing a bomb threat note and causing a diversion per the Delta incident .......

for an Irishman on an Irish aircraft ....

for an Englishman on a U.K. aircraft ....

for an American on a U.S. aircraft .....

for a German National on a German aircraft

any idea ??? ......

[Airbubba]

>>Airbubba, Despite the username, as an Irishman,I have always wanted to be able to say this and thank you for affording me the opportunity: "If you dont like it here, dont let the door hit you in the Butt on the way out" <<

Exactly, and for that reason as you are no doubt aware, there are more people of Irish ancestry in America than there are in Ireland.

[Airbubba]

>>Airbubba LOL. Thanks for the laugh. I am actually in the States at the moment too!<<

OK, you win, and I'll sheepishly (no Scottish jokes) admit to some Irish ancestry <g>...

Back to the bomb threat:

__________________________________


Threat led to lengthy layover

Trip to Atlanta had Irish stop for questioning

By CHARLES YOO

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

After a threatening note found in the toilet of a Frankfurt-to-Atlanta Delta Air Lines flight forced an emergency landing in Ireland Sunday afternoon, passengers underwent three rounds of questioning by authorities.

The 147 passengers had to be fingerprinted and submit their handwriting samples to authorities before Irish police detained a 19-year-old German man in Shannon.

The passengers, who arrived in Atlanta on Monday evening about 28 hours later than scheduled, gave an account of a long wait in Ireland, full of frustration but virtually no panic.

About a couple of hours after leaving Frankfurt, the pilot announced that there was a medical emergency and the plane had to make a landing nearby. But about 10 minutes before the landing, the pilot announced the real reason: The emergency, in fact, was a bomb scare.

"Everybody was in a state of shock. Everyone was so quiet," said James Simmons, 34, of south Atlanta, who was in Frankfurt for a textile trade show.

After landing, the passengers had to exit the plane immediately without any belongings. Simmons and many other passengers simply grabbed the thin blue blankets owned by Delta. Michael Bernstein was barefoot but had to leave his seat without his shoes.

"I saw no anxiety. Everybody was orderly," said Bernstein, 60, of Buckhead, who owns a textile business and also was attending the trade show.

The authorities then bused the passengers to a big hall and began questioning each according to their seat numbers.

"Did you use the toilet? Yes, then which one?" said Jason Roberts, 33, an army captain in South Carolina, recalling one of the questions.

Delta officials would not comment to the media on the layover or threat.

Luckily for them, passengers said, the pilots and Delta employees provided them with up-to-date information about the status of their delay, lessening their frustration.

The passengers, many of whom were from Europe, Asia and North America, were fingerprinted at the airport.

When the questioning ended, the passengers were bused to local hotels, where they were asked to write "Bomb Aboard" each with their left and right hands.

A search of the plane turned up no evidence of a bomb.

Simmons said when the plane landed in Ireland, the local time was 12:20 p.m. By the time they checked into the hotels, it was 10 p.m.

In time, the strangers aboard got to know one another, some exchanging phone numbers.

"They promptly brought food and drinks," said Simmons. "All you can eat, sandwiches, coffee, water and sodas. . . . We were served well."

Police in Shannon said they were questioning the 19-year-old man, who was a passenger on the diverted flight. Police did not identify the man.

Police spokeswoman Sinead O'Hara said the man had been arrested under the Air Navigation and Transport Act but was not charged.

She would not say whether police believed he was the person who left a note in a bathroom suggesting there could be a bomb aboard the plane.

Detectives had questioned the flight's 147 passengers and searched the plane before declaring it safe Sunday night.

In April, a United Airlines flight from London to New York made an emergency landing at Shannon after a crew member found a note with a bomb threat in a seat-back pocket.

Police searched the plane and questioned passengers, but they found nothing suspicious.

http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/delta/0104/20airplane.html

[Airbubba]

German freed after jet bomb hoax

LONDON, England (CNN) --A German teenager arrested in the Republic of Ireland over a hoax bomb threat on a trans-Atlantic passenger jet has been released without charge, police said.

The Delta Air Lines jet, carrying 147 passengers, had been flying to Atlanta, Georgia, from Frankfurt, Germany, Sunday when a note was found in one of the Boeing 767's toilets saying a bomb was onboard.

The aircraft, Delta Flight 27, was diverted to Shannon Airport in western Ireland where it was searched by police and bomb disposal experts before it was declared safe.

The passengers were put up overnight in hotels after police questioned, fingerprinted and took handwriting samples.

The 19-year-old student was arrested under Ireland's Air Navigation and Transport Act on Monday before the jet continued its journey to Atlanta.

The man was later released but Irish police told CNN that files on him were being prepared for public prosecutor.

A similar incident to Sunday's scare occurred last April when a crew member on a United Airlines flight from London to New York found a note containing a bomb threat in a seatback pocket.

That plane later made an emergency landing at Shannon. Police questioned passengers and searched the plane but found nothing out of the ordinary.


http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/01/20/plane.diverted/index.html

[DSR10]

Maybe there is some appeal for long Caribean holidays in Cuba

[rotornut]

it would be interesting to know what the likely Legal penalty would be for writing a bomb threat note and causing a diversion per the Delta incident .......

In Canada the penalty is life imprisonment pursuant to s. 77(g) of the Criminal Code of Canada.:eek:

[Rosbif]

Shannon airport seems to be doing very well out of all this.
Maybe it's a conspiracy headed by the democrats, and the Kennedys !! Just kidding.

[rotornut]

In Canada the penalty is life imprisonment
My mistake - I should have said MAXIMUM penalty etc.
I don't know if we have had any cases in Canada quite like this one. But from my experience in the system I believe a first offender would be looking at a bit of jail - but certainly not life!

[hobie]

quote ...

"I don't know if we have had any cases in Canada "

thanks for your reply Rotor ....... sounds like anything up to a life sentence in Canada is working as a very good deterent !!!!

no replies from other parts of the world which makes me think that either such threats are not being made or no legal action taken ...... should be interesting to see how the Irish system handles the case in question

............

ps. do I recall a Virgin 47 being diverted while enroute to the U.S. a few months ago (also with a note posted in one of the toilets) ???

[Coconuts]

QUOTE]Yeah, let's hope he gets more than the "protester" who did $500K damage to a 737 on January 29, 2002 at SNN. She claimed she was demonstrating her opposition to the U.S. military so she walked with a minor fine. [/QUOTE]

I've had the dubious pleasure in meeting one of them, luckily for him I was very ill on the day so he escaped a good tongue lashing.

Hmm, there were four people charged with this incident, they had a preliminary hearing only recently, saw some of them the night before appeared as cool as cucumbers. Didn't realise any of them had been sentenced so soon, comes as a big surprise to me, I know this particular anarchist could possibly face many years in jail, ain't nothing new to him & doesn't seem to bother him in the least :rolleyes:

Anyway back to the original subject....

[TR4A]

Brit admits bombs quip was foolish

January 22, 2004 - 5:05PM

A British student, who faces jail for joking she was taking bombs onto a plane in the United States, has apologised for making a "foolish mistake".

Samantha Marson, 21, said she "wasn't thinking" when she made her remarks, which could land her in prison for 15 years.

Marson, originally from Bridgnorth, Shropshire, was speaking after being bailed from jail in Miami, Florida, where she had spent four nights.

Her father Jim revealed that his daughter was desperate to return home.

But it looked likely she would be stranded in Miami until February 6, when she is due in court on a charge of making a false bomb report.

After being bailed, Marson said: "I feel really very sorry for what I did. I made a foolish mistake, and it was a very sad experience.

"This is a warning for everybody who wants to play stupid jokes not to do that.

"I am very sorry and I don't want to make that mistake again.

"I wasn't thinking - that was my problem," she told the BBC.

Marson left Dade County Jail with a British consular official.

She was arrested before boarding a London-bound British Airways flight at Miami airport on Saturday.

She had been in the US for three months with her American boyfriend and was about to return to the UK to renew her visa.

Police said she told a Transportation Security Administration official during a baggage security check: "Hey be careful, I have three bombs in here."

Asked to repeat herself, she allegedly made the same statement twice more.

Marson was arrested and taken to Dade County Jail.

[Coconuts]

TR4A

There's a whole thread about that subject over on the Pax & SLF forum. Turned out she did it cause she felt security were taking too long to search her bag.

Looks like now there's another eejit, a 48 year old woman actually, ya'd think at that age she'd have more sense who's in the deep stew for making a bomb quirp at an airport. She was too late to board an EasyJet plane at Newcastle & sought revenge on airline staff by telling them she was in posession of a bomb. Thread started about this issue on same forum too oh & on this forum too.

These people are really beginning to try my patience now, wear me down, I wish the hell they'd learn when to shut up! :mad: