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| Europe |
| LGF: US Bars KLM Flight from Airspace |
| 2005-04-11 |
| A KLM plane from Amsterdam to Mexico was refused access to US airspace today and had to turn back, because it was carrying two passengers who were on a terrorist watch list. And when the plane got back to the Netherlands, Dutch authorities let the two passengers walk away. |
| Posted by:3dc |
| #11 I have read Dutch reports about this. Usually the US "no fly list" matches the ones European airlines have (and vice versa). Obviously somebody messed up. That can happen easily with Arab names. It could even be an error. The Dutch couldn't do anything different. A "no fly list" is not an "do arrest" list. There are people living in the US who are redflagged, but they are not arrested (hear that Senator Kennedy?). I'm sure the Dutch would have arrested the Saudis had the US made a request. Since the Dutch had nothing on them, they had to let them go (although I wonder how they made it out of the country being on a no fly list). I guess some real mean cavity searches were done and other precautions I will not name. It would NOT hurt checking flight lists BEFORE flights take off btw. Somebody went for a long coffee break methinks. Btw KLM makes a refuelling stop in Houston en route to Mexico. Thats why they had to turn back. They could have changed route and not cross Canadian or US airspace but they don't have enough fuel for that. |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2005-04-11 7:21:11 PM |
| #10 One other thing. At least they took them back to Schiphol instead of Canada or someplace closer. I'd rather have an ocean between us than some very badly patrolled border crossing. Hell, Air France would have dropped them off in Quebec & given them cabfare. |
| Posted by: Desert Blondie 2005-04-11 4:04:19 PM |
| #9 In all fairness to KLM, they weren't told that these guys weren't wanted until they were airborne, and were coming up on Canadian airspace. A communications breakdown occurred, because we have always been able to tell them before a plane went airborne if there were undesirables on board. In the past, they have refused to allow passengers who were on our watch lists. Also, even if the passengers were the biggest slimeballs in the al-Qaeda stable, if they didn't do anything to violate Dutch law, and there weren't any warrants they could extradite them to another country on, they had no choice but to let them go. That doesn't mean they weren't watching them, or that they didn't pass on some info to us. |
| Posted by: Desert Blondie 2005-04-11 3:45:43 PM |
| #8 A suggestion to Sr. Fox that we don't appreciate his porous border. Given GWB's behavior so far, there's no reason to believe that this is anything other than a pipedream. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2005-04-11 3:44:46 PM |
| #7 I wonder if this wasn't aimed as much at Mexico as at KLM. A suggestion to Sr. Fox that we don't appreciate his porous border. |
| Posted by: too true 2005-04-11 3:38:26 PM |
#6 Mrs. Davis -- according to other coverage I've read, the two returned to Saudi Arabia after this:Upon their return to the Netherlands, the two passengers who were on the US no-fly list flew via England back to Saudi Arabia, their land of origin, where they were not refused entry either. ... So the two were Saudi subjects, not Dutch citizens. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2005-04-11 12:40:27 PM |
| #5 Who says the Ductch didn't follow the guys home, tap their phones and will pick them up in two weeks for traffic violations when the MSM has lost interest? |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2005-04-11 10:56:29 AM |
| #4 âItâs, of course, very frustrating for passengers and crew to be more than 10, 11 hours in the air, to come back where you departed.â So why didn't the pilot contact headquarters about rerouting to Nassau? Land, refuel, reprovision if possible then continue on to Mexico. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2005-04-11 10:38:47 AM |
| #3 Spot-on, Dave. If they don't care about security, then all flights originating from or stopping (and adding passengers) in the Netherlands can forfeit landing rights. The other carriers will snarf them up instantly. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-04-11 9:21:33 AM |
| #2 "And when the plane got back to the Netherlands, Dutch authorities let the two passengers walk away." Given that kind of Dutch mindset, why do we even trust dutch passenger lists to include the bad guys? Just to be sure, we need to decertify all KLM flights from US airspace. At least until the dutch get serious. |
| Posted by: Dave 2005-04-11 9:09:43 AM |
| #1 One man's terrorist is another's innocent victim of "neocon" islamophobia |
| Posted by: gromgorru 2005-04-11 7:11:09 AM |