West Virginia Airport Liquid Bomb Alert
 

The BBC is reporting that a woman of Pakistani origin has been found with liquid that tested positive for explosives:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/5261456.stm

_______________________________________

West Virginia airport terminal evacuated after bomb dog reacts to suspicious liquid in luggage

By the Associated Press
August 17, 2006

CEREDO, W.Va. -- A West Virginia airport terminal was evacuated Thursday afternoon after a bomb-sniffing dog reacted to a bottle filled with a liquid in a passenger's luggage, an airport official said.

A screener noticed the bottle in a woman's carryon bag as she prepared to board a flight to Charlotte, N.C., said Tri-State Airport authority President Jim Booton.

The woman was detained for questioning, commercial airline service was temporarily suspended, and about 100 passengers and airport employees were ordered to leave the terminal, Booton said.

At least one flight was diverted to Charleston's Yeager Airport, about 60 miles away.

The FBI is investigating.

Aside from the spokespeople saying there is little chance a contaminated bottle would fail 2 different tests - swab and sniffer not much out there yet...

A very interesting twist this...

West Virginia Local News
 

From http://www.wsaz.com/

BREAKING NEWS: Explosive Substances Believed to be Found at Tri-State Airport

Tri-State Airport in Wayne County has been evacuated. A perimeter has been set up, and evacuees are being asked to stand back 350 feet from the airport.

The Transportation Security Administration reports that a passenger's water bottle screened positive for an explosive material around 9:15 this morning. A second test was confirmed at 11:25. TSA is waiting for further testing to determine the exact substance.

NBC News reports that federal screeners found four containers of liquids inside a woman's carry-on bag during the screening process this morning. Larry Salyers, Tri-State Airport Director, tells WSAZ the woman is of Pakistani origin, lived in Jackson, Michigan and most recently lived in the Huntington area. She is being detained for questioning.

The flight in which the woman was going to board was on its way to Charlotte, North Carolina with a final destination of Detroit, Michigan.
FBI officials are on scene.

At least one flight has been diverted to Yeager Airport in Charleston. Salyers says it is uncertain when the airport will resume operations.

From http://www.wv.gov/sec.aspx?pgid=78

Tri-State Airport in Wayne County has been evacuated. Officials ordered the main terminal closed to passengers around 11:30 this morning.
The Transportation Security Administration says a woman is being detained at the airport after she tried to go through security with two vials of an explosive material in her carry-on.

Airport Director Larry Saylers tells 13News a 28 year-old women is being questioned. He says the women born in Pakistan, relocated to Detroit and recently moved to Huntington.

The woman was trying to board US Airways Express flight 4168 from Huntington to Charlotte this morning. The flight was allowed to leave, but the women was detained. The FBI is handling the investigation and has the woman in custody. Officials have not released the women's name.
West Virginia State Police robots are moving the vials to a remote location of the airport for testing and possible detonation.

At least 100 people were evacuated from Tri-State Airport. US Airways Express has cancelled two afternoon flights from Charlotte to Huntington. They are flights 4236 and 4363. Flight 4242 arriving in Huntington at 9:23pm is still scheduled to arrive on time.

Passengers are advised to contact the airlines regarding travel plans. US Airways 1-800-428-4322. Delta 1-800-221-1212.

Chemical tests now negative:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/08/17/air....ap/index.html
I thought the English, Scotch, Welsh & Irish did sarcasm.

I´m not really known amongst my friends for any sympathy for left wing radicals like Michael Moore, but I´m slowly starting to agree with him that this whole perpetual state of fear is just designed to keep people stupid and scared.

In political terms, the phrase "war on terrorism" has become somewhat of a runaway freight train at full speed: unstoppable.

Any critisism is immediately labeled as "unpatriotic" and the media have jumped on the runaway gravy train as they blow up the smallest story into a "narrowly escaped death" drama.

I do not doubt that there are some fanatic loonatics out there, but I don´t think that the current Orwellian approach of keeping the public scared is gonna work in the long run.

It is very difficult to take the P1ss out of the American News Service, when they do such a good job of it themselves.:ugh:

What a surprize. Negative. It's amazing how quick spokespeople get in the damning soundbite at the early stages of an event...look at the Massport spokesperson on the UAL diversion...

Different take on this - but my Missus was at STN yesterday after not being there for some years - she remarked how edgy some PAX were, the jittery atmosphere of the terminal and the remoteness of the police, who were always very nice from Essex at the airport.

Travel is a privilege and supposed to be a pleasure. Let's try and keep it that way, even in the current climate.

Terror scare shutdown 'was racist'

Aug 18 2006

A Pakistani woman whose daughter's carry-on luggage caused an airport to shut down for more than nine hours says it was her ethnic background, not a few bottles of suspicious liquids, that set off security officials.

Initial laboratory testing by the FBI turned up no evidence of explosive materials in the bottles carried at Tri-State Airport in West Virginia by Rima Qayyum, a 28-year-old Pakistani woman dressed in the traditional Islamic headcover.

No charges were filed against the woman, who was never detained and was co-operative when interviewed by the FBI.

Qayyum's mother, Mian Qayyum of Jackson, Michigan, said that her daughter is four months pregnant, lives in Barboursville and is innocent.

"It was not only a false alarm, it was racial discrimination because there was nothing," Mian Qayyum said. "They should clear her name and apologise on national TV."...

http://icnorthlondononline.icnetwork...name_page.html

Perhaps the lady in question should apologise to the airport authorities and the fellow PAX that she inconvenienced by ignoring the carry on baggage guidelines.
:rolleyes:

Currently CNN is running this calming and reassuring graphic:
Target: America

Nice, huh ?

We can blame it on greed. All of the major cable news organizations are guilty of sensationalizing and turning news on terrorism into the fear business - very lucrative, you see - keeps 'em watching in stunned silence. The more viewers you have, the more owners profits go up - and that's the bottom line.

Peabody awards are being traded for Fortune 500 ranking every day. :ugh:

Social responsibility is no longer the central tenet of mass media.

West Virginia State Motto:

"Last week I couldn't even spell xenophobe, now I is one.."

I always thought it went:
"Last week I couldn't even spell xenophobe, now I are one.."

:}

that's why I come to Pprune :ok: