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| Box cutter OK on jet, Passenger Thought |
| 2004-01-02 |
| He was wrong: A Florida man who brought a box cutter aboard a plane leaving Sky Harbor International Airport on Sunday said he used the tool to cut out magazine articles and thought it was permissible to have it on board. Peter Joseph Martin, 57, was escorted off the plane Sunday after a passenger saw him pull the box cutter from his carry-on luggage and place it in the seat pocket in front of him, according to an affidavit filed at the U.S. District Court in Phoenix. He was charged Monday with carrying a dangerous weapon on an aircraft. Officials with the Transportation Security Administration said they still are trying to determine why the 5-inch-long box cutter with a 3-inch blade wasn’t detected by airport screening equipment. Please do. In an interview with police, Martin admitted packing the box cutter in his carry-on luggage but said he was not aware it was prohibited on an aircraft, the affidavit said. Martin also said he did not see the signs at Sky Harbor that said the item was prohibited. Did your seeing eye dog miss them too? In other stupid passenger news: First-class passenger tries to enter cockpit: A 31-year-old Tennessee man is in federal custody after trying to enter the cockpit during a Northwest Airlines flight from Detroit yesterday afternoon. According to Department of Transportation spokesman Scott Ishikawa, the incident occurred about two hours before Flight 923 arrived in Honolulu. Ishikawa said a first-class passenger tried to enter the pilot’s area. The passenger was subdued by a female flight attendant, who was assisted by two off-duty Northwest employees. No weapons were used and no one was injured. Lucky the passengers didn’t get to him first. State sheriffs arrested Brandon Gabriel Rines when the flight landed in Honolulu around 2:30 p.m. He was taken to the federal detention center near the airport and charged with interfering with a flight crew. The FBI is investigating the case. Air marshals halt passenger on Seattle flight An ex-convict on a Honolulu-to-Seattle flight charged toward the cockpit, shouting that he wanted to see the pilot, and was subdued by undercover air marshals who were on board to monitor him, officials said. The man was identified as Reno Maiava, 33, of Seattle. He was released from prison two years ago after serving 10 years for his role in a much publicized spree of beatings of gay men in Seattle in 1990. The incident involving Maiava occurred about two hours into Thursday’s Northwest Airlines Flight 924, according to Dave Adams, spokesman for the federal air-marshal service. Adams described Maiava as having a history of violence and mental problems. A Department of Corrections spokesman in Olympia said Maiava had spent much of his prison term in a "special-needs" unit for people with mental-health problems. Maiava was held pending arraignment on a charge of interfering with a flight crew. When Maiava told his probation officer he was taking a trip to Hawaii, the officer contacted air marshals and encouraged them to place agents aboard a Seattle-to-Honolulu flight that the man took Nov. 19, Adams said. Because of concerns he could endanger people on his return flight, three marshals were assigned to it, he said. If you were that worried, why did you let him on the flight? |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #3 A Florida man who brought a box cutter aboard a plane leaving Sky Harbor International Airport on Sunday said he used the tool to cut out magazine articles and thought it was permissible to have it on board. His air rates are about to go through the roof. |
| Posted by: Charles 2004-1-2 10:39:37 AM |
| #2 The passenger was subdued by a female flight attendant . . . Either he was a wimp, or Eowyn took a job with Northwest after the war. |
| Posted by: Mike 2004-1-2 10:26:25 AM |
| #1 The one thing that we can never cure people of is stupidity. You have to wonder where some of these people have been for the past 2-1/2 years. Reminds me of one time we were talking about something and the person did not believe me and I mada an off hand comment "well the Popes Polish Ain't he?". And they replied "is he?". They were dead serious in their question and this was in 1990. |
| Posted by: Cheddarhead 2004-1-2 10:09:30 AM |