NBC New York is trying to hijack aircraft...

[mattpilot]

Mostly concerns the US, but still important:

AERO NEWS (http://www.aero-news.net/news/genav.cfm?ContentBlockID=ff753694-4e36-4000-8b50-29b7f1053b7f&Dynamic=1)




General Aviation News

Aero-News Alert: Non-Aviation Media Trying To Discredit GA
Thu, 12 Aug '04

American Association of Airport Executives issues alert, reports NBC trying to set up GA facilities and FBO's
Rebecca Morrison, Staff Vice President, Transportation Security Policy Department at the American Association of Airport Executives, has transmitted the following memo and requested widest possible distribution:

The following is a description of an incident that occurred today (11 Aug) at the St. Louis Downtown Airport, a large GA facility. We are sharing this story with you as there are indications that it might be repeated throughout the country. We would like to thank Bob McDaniel, the Director at the St. Louis Downtown Airport, for sharing the details of the incident outlined below.

Earlier today two Middle Eastern men attempted to penetrate our security. They telephoned one of my helicopter FBOs and asked about a charter flight. After discussion of price and directions to the business, they arrived an hour later. When the office agent asked how they were going to pay for the flight they produced cash. When asked for ID, they produced driver’s licenses from two different states and they were driving a car licensed in a third state.

Things didn’t smell right so the mechanic took them into the hangar to see the aircraft while the office person called the FBI and local police. The helicopter they were going to fly was blocked in by other aircraft so the mechanic was able to stall them by having to slowly shuffle the blocking planes. Meanwhile the two men got their backpacks and odd-shaped luggage out of their car. Soon the local police arrived and they were hauled off to jail in handcuffs.

After a little time behind bars, the FBI verified that the two men were employed by NBC New York and were on assignment to get a story of how easy it is to charter a helicopter for a terrorist attack. The men had stayed in a local hotel and purchased box cutters, leather-man knives, and other potential weapons at the local Wal-Mart using a credit card. The box cutters had been hidden in the lining at the bottom of the back packs and the other weapons were hidden throughout their baggage. They had audiotaped the telephone conversation with Arlene and were going to use it as part of a national news story about how easy it is to get information and directions to the location of the helicopter and then hijack it to commit a terrorist attack.



I doubt they will be back at our airport soon and this is a story that will never be seen since they were caught. A very “well-done” to my FBO and staff and the local FBI and police response forces. We have since learned that we were the first airport where this had been attempted and NBC planned to attempt similar penetration stories around the country. Please help me spread the word to other airports.




**edit** Story also on www.aopa.org

[Airbubba]

Yep, these 'journalists' are always at it...

An earlier thread:

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?threadid=77650

[pigboat]

Not surprising. Some years ago, NBC did a television exposé on Chevy and GMC pickups. The vehicles were supposed to be fire hazards in a side collision because of the location of the fuel tanks. The program showed a whole slew of firey collisions, with doomsday commentary by the film's producers. General Motors was understandably upset and questioned their facts. It turned out that NBC had made one teensy weensy modification to the vehicles fuel tanks. It seems the tanks wouldn't explode as they were supposed to in the staged collisions, so NBC had strapped small explosive charges to them and would set the charges off by remote control. Presto, made to order infernos.
As for the helicopter charter, the operator should have taken off and then kicked the ba$tards out the door from a thousand feet. Nip that little experiment in the bud, pronto. :mad: :yuk:

[411A]

Some (many) jurnos will do anything for a juicy story.
Sincerely hope they a locked up for a very long time...and not at a federal country-club facility either.:( :(

[WestWind1950]

similar tricks have been done over here, too, so it's not just interesting for the USA.... thanks for the report.
TV "journalists" made a report on how easy it was to the security at Frankfurt airport.... and in another report they actually walked around a hangar without any checks. ... and of course the usual illegal items in carry-on baggage.
The tale above was soooo obvious, especially the guys looking middle east and having lots of baggage.... how stupid are these reporters? OK... better not answer that ;)

Westy

[Airbubba]

>>The tale above was soooo obvious, especially the guys looking middle east and having lots of baggage.... how stupid are these reporters? OK... better not answer that <<

Here in the U.S. the inevitable follow on story will be that the perps were racially profiled, how unfair, etc., etc...

[WhooEver]

What if these 2 guys had not been "middle eastern men", think the charter company would have thought it suspicious then? I wonder.

Are we now assuming all terrorists are middle eastern? This seems bigger victory for xenophobia than it does for security.

Good to see some lazy journo's finally getting caught though.

[RoyHudd]

Define "xenophobic". Most terrorists in fact have been from the Middle East in the last few years. fact.

[Kingfisher]

A stiff jail sentence for intent to Hijack should ensure these losers report news and not try to make it. If they were white it would have looked like a criminal scenario and they probably have been picked up just the same

[Airbubba]

TV crew testing terror defense is caught [and then released without charge]

By Doug Moore
Of the Post-Dispatch

08/12/2004

Arlene Thomas grew suspicious when two men with out-of-state drivers licenses and a large wad of cash came into her Sauget helicopter hangar Wednesday morning and said they wanted to see St. Louis landmarks from the sky.

The men, whom Thomas described to police as of "Middle Eastern descent," were carrying a duffel bag and a backpack and drove up in a rental car with Texas license plates.

The signs pointed to terrorism - that's exactly the impression the two men, an NBC News producer and cameraman, were trying to create.

Thomas called police, who searched the bags and the men and found a butane lighter, box cutter, two knives, duct tape, a powdery substance and a bottle filled with a clear liquid. The men also had maps of New York, Chicago, San Francisco and St. Louis with major landmarks highlighted in yellow.

The two men, John Zito, an Italian from New York, and Tyrone Edwards, who police described as an Asian-Indian from Atlanta, were part of a story that NBC planned to air Thursday night about security at small airports that charter helicopters. But after the plan fell through in Sauget, the incident at the airport was reduced to a brief mention at the end of the newscast.

Thomas and her husband, Clarke, run Fostaire Helicopters from St. Louis Downtown Airport in Cahokia. The Fostaire hangar is situated on airport land in Sauget. It was that small town's Police Department that arrived on the scene.

"They put out every red flag you could possibly put out," said Sauget Police Chief Patrick Delaney, who handled the call with three of his officers before turning the case over to two members of the FBI's terrorist task force. "We found out they worked for NBC News and were part of a group (of the network's journalists) throughout the country doing a story to see how easy it would be to infiltrate helicopter hangars. Arlene Thomas was on her toes and knew something wasn't right and should be looked into, and contacted us right away."

Thomas said her suspicions began when one of the men called earlier in the day to say he wanted to take a "scenic helicopter ride" but had no interest in knowing how much it would cost.

Zito and Edwards were handcuffed and taken to the Sauget Police Department, where authorities found that the powdery substance was foot powder and the clear liquid was water. Four hours later, the NBC employees were released without charges but with the wrath of airport director Bob McDaniel.

"I'm absolutely outraged that NBC News is out here trying to create news rather than report news," McDaniel said after meeting with members of the Transportation Security Administration. "This clearly scared the hell out of a lot of folks and wasted a lot of valuable resources, tying up emergency forces, and all of it was entirely unnecessary.

"If they wanted to learn about security, we'd have been happy to take them on a ride and show how it works," McDaniel said. Thomas said an apology was in order from NBC to her and everyone who was involved.

McDaniel said he sent out a bulletin immediately to airport directors across the country, alerting them to NBC's actions.

NBC defended its actions in an e-mail statement to the Post-Dispatch, saying that the employees did nothing wrong in determining the security measures at helicopter charter services.

"Nothing they did or carried was illegal," said NBC spokesman Allison Gollust. "In Illinois, the system worked and ... our reporting will include this part of the story, evidence that civilians like those in Illinois are making attempts to keep the skies safe."

[Doors to Automatic]

First I don't see what this news crew were doing wrong. It's good that there are prople out there testing the system. Fortunately on this occasion the system worked, but imagine if it didn't. I'd far rather have it fail with a harmless news crew than some real terrorists. At least then lessons can be learned before its too late!

Secondly to anyone thinking its xenophobic to target people of "middle eastern" appearance - tell me, how many of the 9/11 terrorists were not of "middle eastern" appearance? This is a fact, not xenophobia or racism.

[PAXboy]

"Nothing they did or carried was illegal," said NBC spokesman Allison Gollust. "In Illinois, the system worked and ... our reporting will include this part of the story, evidence that civilians like those in Illinois are making attempts to keep the skies safe." So they get their story anyway in a win-win? What if the 'middle eastern looking men' had been British nationals? Or Australian? Or ... French? Long live spin. :yuk:

[con-pilot]

Well will have to wait and see if this story gets as much air time because the ruse ‘failed’ compared to if they had succeeded.

Ha, whom am I kidding! The story will never see the light of day.

Pigboat that TV show you talked about was “Dateline” with Jane Pauley and Stone Phillips. They attached model rocket motors to the bottom of the fuel tanks of the trucks they wrecking because the trucks never caught on fire (after destroying 10 trucks). The moral of that story was when you buy a new truck check and make sure there is no rocket motor attached to the fuel tank!

[gooneydog]

An innocent but careless pax can say "gun" or "bomb" at security and will get years in clink but these goons will have the police "thank them for their interest in our or security " and get released

[spork]

Most terrorists in fact have been from the Middle East in the last few years. fact.So we should assume that they always will be. :rolleyes:

[EFP058]

I can´t help but wonder what kind of threat a helicopter would pose. What are you gonna do with it? Crash it into a building and hope it´ll disintegrate à la 9/11? Would be so much easier to cause one heck of a lot more death and destruction using much simpler and less obvious (non-aviation) means.

Kinda reminds me of when this loon circled over Frankfurt in his ultralight, causing the entire city to come to a screeching halt, with Luftwaffe fighters circling him and whatnot. I seriously wonder what would have happened had he indeed crashed his plastic airplane into some building. Does anyone here think the building would really have suffered any damage besides maybe some broken windows?

But yeah, things that fly are obviously dangerous, and we all don´t know what we are talking about. Leave it to the journos to tell the public the truth. :yuk:

[Robert Vesco]

First I don't see what this news crew were doing wrong. It's good that there are prople out there testing the system. Fortunately on this occasion the system worked, but imagine if it didn't. I'd far rather have it fail with a harmless news crew than some real terrorists. At least then lessons can be learned before its too late! As 9-11 has shown, the security chain is only as strong as it´s weakest link, and let´s face it, every security system has it´s weak links. Exposing any possible weak links in a sensationalistic news show does absolutely nothing to combat terrorism. It only encourages more lunatics and fanatics to look even harder for their holy grail i.e another weak link in the security system. Furthermore it only increases the nationwide state of fear and paranoia that has swept across the USA after decades of incompetence and complacency regarding security.

[Hostie from Hell]

Agree with the last post.

They should have been thrown in jail for a few months for wasting police (read tax payers) time.
Tabloid "reporting" culture has to be stamped out.

[simon brown]

I dont have a problem with journos probing security weaknesses and identifying inadequacies were found.What I do have a problem with, is people being branded racists and xenophobics for targetting surprise surprise people of middle eastern ethnicicity.

To any of you of that persuasion out there, if one of your loved ones was raped by a white caucasian which was witnessed, a description given to the Police and the police asked your loved one to attend an identity parade consisting of Black Afro caribean males/ Chinese./Hispanics, you would want to know why wouldnt you?.

If the Policeman stated that we darent target members of the suspect's ethnic background as we would be branded rascists and Xenophobes you would be pretty upset wouldnt you....QED

As a tax payer I expect the Police to target the most likely groups involved in terrorist activities and not waste time pursuing a non threatening "quota" to keep the PC lettice eaters happy.

Are the security services constantly probing security.IE are MI5 probing security in the states and visa versa?

[yazman]

I don't suppose this little episode was prompted at all by the release of the FBI's latest piece of 'intelligence'; to wit"Al-Qaida has apparently considered the use of helicopters as an alternative to recruiting operatives for fixed-wing aircraft," said the bulletin, sent Friday night to police and other government officials nationwide and obtained Monday by The Associated Press.

The second bulletin, also sent Friday night, said that terrorists could use a variety of rental vehicles to conceal powerful bombs, including limousines that have a larger storage capacity than rental cars.And when did reporters become 'producers' ? When they started producing news instead or reporting it, I suppose :ugh:.

Furthermore, 'middle-eastern-descent' (pronounced as a single word) seems to mean anyone who is not obviously white or negro, viz: John Zito, an Italian from New York, and Tyrone Edwards, who police described as an Asian-Indian from Atlanta.

Just a phrase to get instant reaction/panic from the plods. Anybody know the applicable 10- code ? :suspect:

[MarkD]

The job of ensuring airports are secure is that of the FAA and TSA. These organisations should be and presumably do auditing to ensure that proper procedures are in place.

These journalists should be prosecuted and so should NBC. But they won't coz if they were the White House wouldn't be able to get them to withhold tape of Bush looking like he didn't have a clue as one film maker found out recently.

If NBC has evidence TSA and FAA are not properly auditing aviation facilities it should show it, not go after airports in a way that they are damned if they profile suspicious characters and behaviour and damned if they don't.

[Jerricho]

I've said it before. and I'll say it again. What would the concequences have been if any other journo's involved in this little escapade had been injured or killed if the situation had evolved into something that got beyond anybody's control (take the recent example of that Brit tool from the Sun that took a knife on a flight)? And I'm not just talking injury from the involvement of law enforcement.

I'm putting 10 bucks down now the media would worship them a martyrs.:yuk:

[Huck]

1. Dateline also sneaked into the cockpits of some Delta jets in Atlanta back in the mid-nineties. Got reporters hired on as contract cleaners without background checks. I actually was glad they did that - I still think the industry's weakest link is our hiring practices.

2. There are at least three professional pilots from major airlines that have lost their jobs over flip remarks made to screeners. We've all heard the "what are you worried about my hat for? I could crash the plane if I wanted to" story. That guy is now a greeter at WalMart or something. Hard to believe these guys are gonna skate away from this.

3. A New York Italian can't do ANYTHING anonymously south of about Virginia.

4. The very best part of the story is: the hero is named Arlene. All the money we spend, and we're saved by Arlene. The terrorist war will be won by the Arlenes and Bubbas of this world.

[Heliport]

The Daily Mirror pulled a similar tacky stunt in the UK last year.


Click here (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=82950).

[dallas dude]

D2A,

I'd agree with you completely if the said NBC news team subsequently ran a story on how they were "caught", continuing with the positive changes for Joe Public (certainly ALL crewmembers using/transiting TSA controlled areas are aware of the negatives) implemented throughout the aviation system in the US but, alas, I'm not holding my breath for such a story.

TV News producers are well aware that every-day stories of normality and professionalism prevent them from spinning the 'hook' the Corporations, who pay dearly to advertise during the 6 o'clock infotainment that's passed off nowadays for "News", so desire.

Having been raised in an environment where if Richard Baker, Kenneth Kendall, Walter Kronkite (or even dear old Reggie Bosanquet) et al said it, it was likely true, I find it deeply offensive that this so-called journalism knows no bounds of responsibility regarding sensationalism.

There I was..."upside down and on fire...." (only kidding).

DD

[wonko the sane]

Roy Hudd said: "Most terrorists in fact have been from the Middle East in the last few years. fact.".

I could be wrong, but I think that most terror acts in the USA in the last 15 years have been carried out by Americans.
Most acts in the UK in the same period have been carried out by Northern Irish.
Most acts in the same period in France & Spain have been carried out by Basques.