Moroccan Plane Diverted in US?

[mini]

Just heard something about a Moroccan plane being diverted in the US due to a bomb scare, no more details than this at the moment.

[angels]

More absolutely crass behaviour by a pax apparently.


Moroccan plane diverted to Maine after bomb threat

WASHINGTON, Feb 20 (Reuters) - A Moroccan airliner travelling from New York to Casablanca was diverted to Maine after a passenger on board made a bomb threat, a U.S. official said on Friday.
Royal Air Maroc Flight 201 was en route to Morocco when "a passenger made a phone call to a family member and made a statement that included a bomb threat against the aircraft," said Ann Davis, spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration.
Davis said she did not have any additional information about the threat.
The plane, which took off on Thursday from New York's John F. Kennedy Airport at 7 p.m. EST/0000 GMT, was diverted to Bangor International Airport in Maine. Eighty-two passengers and 10 crew members were aboard, Davis said.
The flight landed safely in Bangor at 11:16 p.m. EST/0316 GMT and taxied to a secure area.
Passengers were kept aboard the plane for about 90 minutes, Davis said. Transportation officials were re-screening passengers early Friday morning.
Davis said she did not know if the flight would fly on to Morocco or if passengers would stay in Maine overnight.
The person who made the alleged bomb threat was being questioned by officials on site, Davis said.

[Ranger One]

Seems there may be a little more to this than the usual stupidity, angels... the BBC is reporting that the pax in question is an investment banker, not your usual loser, and he went missing in Chicago a week ago - his family hired a private detective to search for him, fearing kidnap. Phone call allegedly said he had been forced to do 'something' for AQ...

Another version I heard speaks of the pax making the call about 2 hours into the flight, using a *cellphone borrowed from another pax*(!!!)

BBC version of the story is at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3505647.stm

Laugh a minute... TSA says divert due pax phoning bomb threat. FAA says there was no bomb threat, as far as they know - divert due pax felt to be a 'security risk'! Keystone cops.

Interestingly, this story does not exist on the CNN website - no indication it ever happened...

R1

[Rollingthunder]

"Diverted N.Y. Plane Resumes Trip to Morocco

PORTLAND, Maine (AP)--A Moroccan-bound jetliner that was diverted to Bangor resumed its route early Friday, and one passenger remained behind to talk to federal agents, federal authorities said.

The passenger--27-year-old investment banker Zubiar Ali Ghias, who had been reported missing to Chicago police last Saturday--was in Bangor and is not under arrest, FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz said.

``The investigation is continuing and he continues to be cooperative,'' she said.

Ghias was one of 91 people aboard Royal Air Maroc Flight 201 when it took off from New York's Kennedy International Airport for Casablanca Thursday evening, the FBI said. Federal authorities diverted the Boeing 767 to Bangor, where it landed about four hours later, the agency said.

The official Moroccan news agency, MAP, citing said two people were removed from the plane, not one.

It was not immediately clear why the plane was diverted.

Marcinkiewicz cited calls from Chicago-area media to an airline security desk in New York reporting a possible bomb.

``There was no bomb,'' she said.

Marcinkiewicz declined to comment on statements from a private investigator in Chicago who said he called the FBI after Ghias called his family using a fellow passenger's cell phone to say he had been abducted by al-Quaida.

Transportation Security Administration spokesman Mark Hatfield said the plane was redirected because of a bomb threat. He said the threat was apparently made by a passenger on the plane.

Holly Baker, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration in New England, said she knew nothing about a bomb threat. Baker said the plane was diverted because ``there was a person aboard who they felt was a security risk.''

The private investigator, Eddie Rizzo, told The Associated Press that Ghias called from the Royal Air Maroc flight. Rizzo said Ghias had last been seen by his family on Saturday. He said he was hired to track Ghias to New York through his credit cards.

Rizzo quoted Ghias as telling his wife, ``I'm on flight 201 to Morocco. I've been captured by al-Qaida, they want me to do something for them. I love you, I just gotta do this.''

Rizzo said Ghias had apparently used the cell phone of another passenger. Rizzo said he called back the number, and the passenger confirmed the flight number. Rizzo said he summoned the FBI to the family's apartment, and the FBI questioned the family.

Rizzo's account could not be immediately confirmed.

The plane, carrying 81 passengers and 10 crew members, landed at Bangor International Airport in Maine around 11:15 p.m., officials said.

Passengers were rescreened and the plane was refueled before taking off at 3:51 a.m., Marcinkiewicz said."



Investment banker or not, I would classify him as prime blacklisting material.

[Ranger One]

Rollingthunder:

Investment banker or not, I would classify him as prime blacklisting material.

Sounds about right. A joick, or woise - as we say in New York

OTOH it's just barely possible, from the 'facts' that are now coming out, that the 'bomb threat' story was nothing to do with the pax concerned, but came from the family and/or their private dick... it was a 'domestic dispute', it appears - a walkout husband, and a wife who wanted him found...

Bizarre. Someone's going to jail. I hope.

R1

[SaturnV]

According to a report on CBS News, this passenger was viewed with some suspicion during check-in because he had no luggage for a trans-Atlantic trip. This supposedly contributed to the decision to divert.

[Airbubba]

Another case of unfair profiling of Arabs...

"...He claimed that in New York, three Arab men took him to a motel where he checked in under the name "Roberto Perez." Several days later the Arabs forced him to get a new passport and a last minute ticket to Morocco, which he paid for in cash."

___________________________________________

Authorities say banker lied after fight with wife

By GLENN ADAMS

CHICAGO — It was a dramatic story that began on Valentine´s Day and supposedly involved a carjacking, a terrorist kidnapping and a one way ticket to Casablanca, Morocco.

But it was also an elaborate web of lies that put federal authorities on alert and caused an international flight to be diverted while still in the air, according to the FBI.

Zubair Ali Ghias told FBI agents he made a "rash decision" and may have been suffering from dementia "due to the stress in his life" when he phoned relatives and told them he had been kidnapped by Arab terrorists, the FBI said in an affidavit filed Friday.

Ghias, 27, is charged with making false statements to the FBI, a felony. He remained in custody in Maine pending a hearing Monday in federal court.

Ghias, an investment banker with JP Morgan Chase, was reported missing in Chicago on Monday. After he told his wife he was going to the office, he walked out of their Lincoln Park condo on Feb. 14 and never returned. The couple had fought earlier in the day.

Ghias´ sport utility vehicle was later found abandoned on the other side of the city, in the crime-ridden Englewood neighborhood. It was then learned that he had withdrawn $5,200 from a South Side bank near where his SUV was found.

A private investigator hired by Ghias´ family learned that his credit card had been used to purchase building materials, including glue and tape at a hardware store in Brooklyn, N.Y.

The number of questions surrounding his disappearance increased as the search for his whereabouts continued.

The FBI affidavit includes the following account of what happened between the time he left home and his arrest.

After boarding the plane bound for Casablanca on Thursday night, Ghias called home.

He spoke with his wife, an uncle and a Chicago police detective that happened to be at the home. Ghias told them he had been kidnapped and forced to travel to New York and was now headed to Morocco, where his kidnappers had arranged for someone to meet him.

That phone call set in motion a chain of events that culminated with the Royal Air Maroc flight being diverted to Bangor, Maine, four hours after it had taken off in New York because of suspicions that a passenger onboard had a bomb.

Ghias was removed from the plane in handcuffs because FBI agents were not certain "that he did not have the ability to detonate an explosive device," the affidavit said.

He then began telling the bogus story of how he was kidnapped. He said he was the victim of a carjacking after he left his home on Feb. 14.

He told the FBI agents he was then told to withdraw the $5,200 in $50s and $20s and give it to his captor. He said the man then tied his ankles and wrists with rope and took pictures of him before untying and forcing him to board a bus for New York.

He claimed that in New York, three Arab men took him to a motel where he checked in under the name "Roberto Perez." Several days later the Arabs forced him to get a new passport and a last minute ticket to Morocco, which he paid for in cash.

He told investigators that he was supposed to switch places with one of the Arab men right before the plane departed but that the man did not show up at the airport.

Later on in the interview, however, Ghias admitted the story was a lie and that after fighting with his wife he made "a rash decision to go to New York and get away from everything," according to the affidavit.

If convicted, Ghias faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison, federal prosecutors said.

A second man detained from the flight was identified by a federal immigration official as Ahmed Bhiksi, a Moroccan who was in the process of being deported from the United States.

Bangor police Sgt. James Owens said Ghias and Bhiksi were seated together on the plane, but it was coincidence that the men were both on the same flight.


http://news.mainetoday.com/apwire/D80RTLSG0-51.shtml