AA136 DIVERSION TO jfk

[Melax]

AA136 flight to London has been diverted to JFK after a FA reported "a suspicious person" seated in the last row of the Business class Cabin. The FA reported that the "person of middle eastern descent" was seen aboard an employee bus without ID ?
The Captain announced that they were diverting to get more fuel.
It looks now that the person may be an AA employee traveling to the UK.
There should be some way to insure that we do not divert planes just because "someone looks suspicious", if that person is an employee, there is a list of passengers on board an the crew should be able to assert that the person is in fact an employee. Looks like the terrorists are disturbing our system quite often. It will cost AA a lot of $$ for that diversion not counting the inconvenience to the passengers !!

[411A]

What more can you expect from a trolly-dolly?
Not really surprised at this...expect more of the same from the CC.

[lexxity]

It looks now that the person may be an AA employee traveling to the UK.


In which case he should have an ID code in his reservation that will show on the PIL.

[Melax]

Here's the CNN link http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/12/plane.diverted/index.html

[d192049d]

411A Genuine commnet founded on years of experience and therefore completley objective or just designed to inflame those on the forum?

Do you just exist to make arrogant and dispariging statements about your colleagues. When was the last time you undertook a CRM course...when was the last time you actually took time out to appreaciate excactly what Cabin Crew do. I have witnessed a number of your posts and you are starting to sound like the "Bud Holland" style of aviator to me.

Happy flying and lets hope you never need the individuals behind the door who exist for the saftey and comfort of ALL on board.

Regards

[old,not bold]

I haven't travelled ID90 or dispatched a flight or whatever for years so stop me where I go wrong.

Other than the operating crew and supernumary crew listed on the GD or whatever that's now called, everyone on board has a ticket and checks in the usual way, via security etc, and that includes staff of the operating company and other companies on free or reduced rate travel.

No ticket = no contract = no insurance = no liability limits, quite apart from security aspects.

If a person "without ID" managed to get in the crew bus and then on board, why was this additional passenger not noticed and identified in the head count, or even not spotted by the crew in the bus? If the head count was right, and thus if every passenger was properly ticketed, checked in and screened by security, why did anyone take any notice of the FA's report, apart from checking back to the departure station that the counts were correct?

What's the real story?

[Hookerbot 5000]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - An American Airlines flight was diverted to New York early on Thursday after the crew reported a suspicious passenger in what the FBI said was a misunderstanding.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070712/ts_nm/flight_diverted_dc

"TSA is looking into the incident, but at this time there is no nexus to terrorism," the Transportation Security Administration said in a statement.
American Flight 136 from Los Angeles to London made an emergency landing "out of an abundance of caution" at JFK Airport at 2:30 a.m. after a flight attendant identified a suspicious passenger, TSA said. The flight was canceled and passengers were rebooked on other flights.
American Airlines said the passenger was handed over to the FBI.

An FBI spokesman said the matter was closed and was due a "misunderstanding between the crew and where this passenger came from or who he was."

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told CNN he had received a report the man in question was an employee who was traveling in a private capacity.

"It may very well turn out that this is nothing more than a misunderstanding with an employee who used an employee bus to get on a plane for a private flight," Chertoff said.

CNN said security agents boarded the plane and took a man off. The network said the pilot initially told passengers the plane did not have enough fuel.

The Boeing 777-200 was carrying 218 passengers and 14 crew members, the airline said.

[ChristiaanJ]

Al-Kweeda has won, I'm telling you.

[Melax]

There are reports that both The FBI & TSA are saying that proper security procedures were followed. This may be a big OOPS for the FA involved.

[llondel]

This may be a big OOPS for the FA involved.

I hope the result is education and not punishment, lest it discourage someone doing the right thing in future. As with a lot of these things, someone screwed up but the important thing is how the system let that person screw up and how to put something in place to prevent a repeat.

[View From The Ground]

CNN reports that pax was a platinum card holder....not for much longer I guess...with AA anyway!

[bomarc]

trolley dolly...I"ll bet that guy had lots of fun with flight attendents or is it attendants

I hope that someone at american will post any action taken against the crew

and yes, al qaeda won...and bush got fewer votes than gore

[411A]

Sorry, d192049b, I call 'em as I see 'em.
CC in the USA are, IMHO, a big waste of time and trouble.
Europe..much better trained, certainly.
S/SE Asia, very good service and many times superb emergency training.
Case in point.
Some years ago during taxi for departure on rny 24 at MNL.
The First officer says...'my God, Captain look at this'....pointing to the B707 on short final to rny 24, descending list a brick.
It landed short.
Whump!!!
Many pax seen bailing out, and there she was...the forward FA directing folks down the chute...sadly, she died.
A class act, certainly.
Proper traning pays off, big time.
American carriers?
Too darn worried about their seniority position to generally give a darn.
Exceptions?
Yes, of course.
Case in point,
TWA TriStar depating JFK...F/O ****-ed up, and handed over to the Captain a perfectly flyable airplane.
Captain...rejected, at 30 feet AGL....strange as it may seem.
CC?
All 296 out, no problems.
TWA had very good CC training in place.
Others?
Not so sure.

[CSilvera]

If he sues I hope the airline backs its employees.

[whazitdoinnow]

Which one? They're both AA employees. Or was the suspicious person a regular customer? I still haven't that one figured out yet.

[bubbers44]

So far the facts are so uncertain that we still don't know if the guy was an employee, actually was the guy she saw in the employee bus, went through normal security or who decided why to divert to JFK. Rumors are the very senior captain had turned in another crew in London earlier for misconduct on a crew bus going to the hotel. LAX has a procedure that lets crews go directly from employee parking to flt ops. If he was an employee he could not get his passport checked and his authorization to board the flight without first being checked on the unsecure side. I guess he could then park his car in the employee lot but dought it. It doesn't sound like this was a security threat. Maybe just a bit of investigation would have solved the dilema. He bought a normal ticket so may or may not have been an employee. Sometimes employees buy normal tickets, especially if they are on personal business or want a confirmed seat.

Guess we will have to wait and see why this all happened. The captain reporting crew member misconduct is only relevent if revenge was involved.

[bubbers44]

It would also make him an A$$%ole. Doubt, not dought, was the word. Had to look it up. We always had our crew juice to the hotel. What an a$$. Always hated looking for these guys wondering when you could have a fun ride to the hotel after a long flight . Most of our FA's had it mixed and ready so if I was the captain I always had to have a taste to make everybody relax. I sacrificed.

[cwatters]

In case anyone missed it...

The CNN report says he did have a ticket.