Possible UAL Shoe Bomber IAD-DEN
 

Ah, good old diplomatic immunity.

"Your diplomatic immunity...... has just been revoked!":D

NBC: Passenger subdued aboard United jet - Airliner security- msnbc.com

Don't know what the whole story is, but it looks like he was making a bad joke..
Although in light of the Christmas Day attempted bombing, if the idiot was indeed joking he needs to have his head examined....

He probably went to the head to smoke and when found out tried to turn it into a (bad) joke, thinking that his diplomatic imunity would get him off. Fool.

I like how the suspect is admonished for breaking smoking regulations by officials who ask not to be identified because they are not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation.

AP source: Man on flight possibly sneaking smoke - wtop.com

All over BBC, "Qatari diplomat detained after incident on US plane"
 

This all over, in the BBC and CNN now. A bit dramatic, but better safe than sorry. On the other hand, if we had F16's accompany us every time someone was smoking, we would be escourted on almost every flight!


http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/image...ver_080410.gif
A Qatari diplomat has been detained after an incident on a flight from Washington's Reagan airport to Denver.
Two F-16 jets were scrambled to intercept the United Airlines plane and escort it to land safely at Denver airport, US officials said.
Initial reports said the man, who has not been named, had tried to set fire to his shoes.
But officials later said no explosives were found and he had apparently been trying to smoke in a plane toilet.
When confronted, the man "made a joke about it", which further alarmed people on board the flight, said an unnamed official quoted by the Associated Press news agency.
'Mistake'
The man was later identified as a Qatari diplomat stationed at the country's Washington embassy.
In a statement, Qatar's ambassador to the US, Ali Bin Fahad al-Hajri, said the diplomat "was certainly not engaged in any threatening activity", and "facts will reveal that this was all a mistake".
The plane, with more than 160 passengers and crew on board, arrived at Denver International Airport, where TV footage showed it surrounded by security vehicles.
The US Transportation Security Administration said it responded to "an incident on board United Airlines flight 663 [from Washington to Denver] after Federal Air Marshals responded to a passenger causing a disturbance on board the aircraft".
"Law enforcement and TSA responded to the scene and the passenger is currently being interviewed by law enforcement."
The incident came just months after a Nigerian man allegedly tried to detonate a bomb on a passenger jet arriving in the US.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, was overpowered by passengers and crew shortly before the Northwest Airlines plane landed in Detroit from Amsterdam on 24 December. He has been charged with attempting to destroy a plane.
In 2001, Richard Reid, a British citizen, attempted to blow up a transatlantic passenger jet carrying 197 people with explosives hidden in his shoes.

Qatari diplomat arrested after mid-air 'bomb threat'
 

[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']A Qatari diplomat caught smoking in the toilets of a plane over the US made a joke about being a “shoe bomber” and sparked a security scare on Wednesday night.[/FONT]

The official, identified by the Associated Press (AP) as Mohammed Yaaqob Y M Al Madadi, was caught smoking in the toilets of a plane from Washington to Denver, and when questioned allegedly made a joke that he had been trying to “light” his shoes.

Al Madadi was immediately restrained by air marshals aboard the plane. Meanwhile, two fighter jets were scrambled and intercepted the United Airlines Boeing 757, which was carrying 157 passengers and six crew members.
[FONT='Calibri','sans-serif']When the plane landed in Denver airport law enforcement officials meet the plane and Al-Madadi, a third secretary at the Qatari Embassy in Washington, was detained for questioning.

No explosives were found on the diplomat, and law enforcement officials told the AP that it was apparent that Al Madadi did not mean to cause any harm.

Diplomats in the US are privileged to diplomatic immunity from prosecution and if US authorities wish to pursue charges against Al Madadi they will need to obtain permission from Qatar.

A senior US State Department official told AP that it was likely Al Madadi would be expelled from the US.[/FONT]

I don't know which appals me more, the elevated state of paranoia that passes for normality these days or the stupidity of anyone who provokes it.

Why are people so desperate to smoke ? :ugh:

Surely not another xenophobic over-reaction?
 

Why am I not surprised? At least with Obama in charge Doha is unlikely to be carpet bombed as a punishment.

Unfortunately, we'll never really find out what happened. Those involved probably reckon they saved the Western World and the guy who started it will just quietly leave. Have we learnt anything from this? Well it depends who's doing the learning - Team America, World Police mentality appears to be very prevalent amongst "security" personnel. As they call the shots, standby for a re-run in the near future. After all, we can't be too careful, can we?

PM

You have to remember that smokers are drug addicts, no different to those hooked by other narcotics. The only reason that smoking and drinking are tolerated is that they are good sources of revenue for governments.

Maybe they read the 9/11 Commission's report.

There were folks that did not exhibit that mentality that day, and later wished they did.....

The idiot clearly made an inappropriate joke.

So what were the F-16s for? To shoot down the airliner if he successfully lit the laces of his Gucci brogues?

Smarter than you think?
 

Perhaps the lighting of shoelaces is a subtle plot to identify the air marshals so that his pals a couple of rows back can take them out and THEN go on to hijack the plane... Hence the fighter escort. ;)

Just joking guys...

no smoke alarms?
 

If he was smoking in the loo, why didn't a smoke alarm go off? Every safety briefing says that there are alarms in the lav and tampering with them is illegal etc.

No news story has mentioned smoke alarms. Only that pax thought they smelled smoke.

The Americans are sh!t-scared of their own shadows. Anyone of a dusky appearance doing something out of the ordinary is likely to get a very scared police officer screaming at him and waving a gun in his face.

This guy was lucky not to get his brains blown out 'as a precautionary measure'. Americans only recognise the significance of diplomatic immunity when it suits them....Rather like their own stance on war-crimes. In 2002 George W.Bush formally suspended the USA's signature to the Rome Treaty of the International Criminal Court to ensure that no US citizen could ever be tried for war-crimes in The Hague. Hence the USA is accountable to nobody but themselves for their activities outside their borders..... Hardly the viewpoint of a mature developed nation! A cynic might say that a scared population are much more malleable to the wishes of their government... who knows.

Perhaps in 2002 GWB had some overseas adventure in mind ?

Believe me, I say this with deep understanding of the ire that some feel about the general things the U.S. gets up to.

But until the Citigroup building and another of them on the Docklands has planes from LHR flown into them and another into Parliament or the UK equivalent to the Pentagon, it's hard for others to understand the undue "skittish"-ness.

Worse, if you saw it as I did on 9/11 up close and in person at the Pentagon.

And then the nutty Detroit thing. We are just overly sensitive on our own soil after all of that when it comes to miscreants in aluminum tubes doing bizarre things.

And if folks had been as militant as you are suggesting about waving guns in faces of dusky folks, an army major professing deep hatred couldn't have been ignored so long by his chain of command and colleagues, due to PC before he killed two dozen on an army base in the name of allah..

If anything, we are as much caught up in the PC brigade as the UK is, when it comes to stepping in before disaster.

Diplomatic Immunity would seem to be an unhelpful anachronism in cases like these.

Of course diplomats should be held accountable for such behaviour.

Italy Seeks Extradition Of 22 CIA Operatives - washingtonpost.com

Oh, wait...........

I'm told that one exhales into the sink with the plug open to create negative pressure.....