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| India-Pakistan |
| Air scare: All 12 detained Indians freed |
| 2006-08-24 |
| An edgy Dutch security apparatus, after creating the impression of a foiled terror plot when it arrested 12 Indian on Wednesday following the return of a Northwest Airlines flight to Amsterdam, late on Thursday night brought the curtains down on the high-voltage drama by releasing all of them. The 12 held were all Muslims, most of them Bohras from Mumbai. Their irrational exuberance during takeoff — when they reportedly talked on mobile phones and exchanged them around — seems to have aroused the suspicion of the air marshals. The moral of the story: there is currently zero tolerance for any out-of-line behaviour in the air. Questions are also being raised about security profiling on the basis of race and religion. It appears the alarm was triggerred also by the fact that some among the detained dozen sported beards, wore salwar-kameez and spoke in Urdu. In days to come, this high-profile episode is certain to generate a debate on questionable biases in terror-combat operations. Earlier on Thursday in Amsterdam, a spokeswoman for the national anti-terrorism office, speaking for Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner, said, "So far there are no signs this was a terrorist threat". In New Delhi, minister of state for external affairs Anand Sharma told reporters that "the information we received says that they have been arrested for flight disruption and not terrorist acts". From their names, a number of the 12 detained seem to be Bohra Muslims of Mumbai. |
| Posted by:john |
| #14 The group of 12 passengers was not heeding the instructions of the stewardesses, who had asked them to switch off their mobile phones and to remain seated. End of story. I hope they all were treated to complimentary deep cavity searches upon debarking. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-08-24 22:36 |
| #13 Thanks for finding that, john. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-08-24 22:26 |
| #12 Just so, Nimble Spemble. And now we've got the first branch of the Hofbrauhause to be built outside of Munich -- although according to the manager there will be further franchises built in suitable American cities in the near future... so y'all pray for one to go up near you! And our Oktoberfest is second only to Munich in size and beer flow, apparently (although Cincinnatians tend to eat themselves silly on giant cream puffs and such instead of drinking 'til they throw up in the corner like ther real Germans do, as I've been told). |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-08-24 22:24 |
| #11 What happened on board KLM flight NW042 Vipin Vijayan in Mumbai | August 25, 2006 03:58 IST Nineteen-year-old Karan Singh landed in Mumbai more than 24 hours behind schedule. But he wasn't peeved at the delay. Instead, he was relieved. For Singh, a passenger in the Northwest Airlines flight NW042, a 48-hour ordeal had come to an end. He was among some 18 passengers who had arrived in Mumbai on Thursday night after their flight was grounded in Amsterdam and subsequently cancelled. The behaviour of a group of passengers aroused suspicion among the crew, who alerted Dutch officials on ground. Soon, two Dutch F-16s were out on the skies and escorted the flight back to Amsterdam. Though he did not witness the drama that took place inside the aircraft, Singh said the authorities handled the entire operation well. "We were told that the aircraft had some technical problem because of which it would land at the Schiphol airport in Amsterdam. But upon landing there, it became clear that the reason given to us was not true. Armed commandos had surrounded the aircraft and the presence of fighter jets made it clear that something was wrong," he says. Among others on board the ill-fated flight was Central Reserve Police Force Deputy Commandant (Retd) Umesh Prasad Mehra was on board the aircraft. Mehra says the air marshals did what he ought to have done. The group of 12 passengers was not heeding the instructions of the stewardesses, who had asked them to switch off their mobile phones and to remain seated. As their pleas fell on deaf ears, the stewardesses had to alert the air marshal, Mehra said. "As an educated passenger I had asked them not to use the lavatory while the plane was taking off, but they did not listen," he said. The air marshal tactfully used sign language to call out the erring passengers so as not to create panic among the other 148 passengers on board the aircraft, he added. However, Mehra said the situation on the ground could have been handled better. "There were a number of delays with regard to inquiry into the incident. These days, enquiry has to be quick. There was further delay with regard to lodging for the passengers. Nobody was there to take care of the passengers when the aircraft was at the airport." he said. A few others felt that the situation during the flight and on the ground had been handled well. A Northwest Airlines crewmember, who preferred to be anonymous, said once it was informed over the passenger announcement system that the aircraft would land shortly, the marshals took over. According to him, the passengers were comfortable. Nitin and Kiran Dalal too were among the lot that Mumbai. They said that the 12 passengers who were detained were passing around their mobile phones despite having been instructed to switch them off. "They were moving around. Nobody moves around the aircraft soon after take off. Other passengers were frightened by their actions. As soon as we landed, some uniformed men took them in handcuffs," Kiran said. "We were not informed about why we had landed in Amsterdam. I think they said it was a mechanical failure. We were all very suspicious. We knew something was wrong and that something was going on. Soon, the cabins and the area under the seats were scanned maybe for explosives. We didn't know. While waiting in the aircraft, we were not allowed to use the bathroom. We could not talk to each other. It was very confusing," she added. Stewart Nicol confirmed what the Dalals had narrated. Looking to put the harrowing 48 hours behind him, Nicol said the passengers were told that they will be briefed upon landing at Amsterdam. All they said was that there was some sort of mechanical problem with the plane, he said. He however denied having seen anything suspicious. Everybody was just calm, he said. |
| Posted by: john 2006-08-24 22:10 |
| #10 John - OK, but I get the window, on the other side. Good taste... |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-08-24 21:17 |
#9
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| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-08-24 20:18 |
| #8 Can I sit next to Salma Hayek on the nekkid plane? |
| Posted by: john 2006-08-24 19:01 |
| #7 My suggestion if you want to fly learn to do it naked and totally electronics free. That would eliminate most of these asshats right off the bat and make security easy. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2006-08-24 18:46 |
| #6 gromky, I believe you're confusing these twelve idiots with the two "Asian men" who were pulled off of a Malaga to Manchester flight earlier this week. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-08-24 17:55 |
| #5 Evidently they were also making comments like "this will be the last 30 minutes of my life". |
| Posted by: gromky 2006-08-24 17:47 |
| #4 I wonder if the really important and central lesson actually sank in to these twelve individuals. The one of not using electronically broadcasting devices while the pilot is calibrating navigational avonics. On my way to Armenia, during roll-out at Schipol in Amsterdam, two Armenian men cheerfully ignored my glares and continued to chat loudly on their cell phones. I finally asked them if they wanted our plane to slam into a mountain because their cell phone yakking had compromised preflight loran recalibration. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-08-24 17:00 |
| #3 TW - my parents would just discuss everybody in Yale accented Mandrin. (^8 |
| Posted by: 3dc 2006-08-24 16:48 |
| #2 When we lived abroad, I taught the trailing daughters to speak in the local language when we left the house. This achieved two goals: we improved our language skills (always good for toddlers to do!), and the locals didn't have cause to think we were talking about them in front of the faces. And of course, we were never embarrassed to discover that those around actually understood what we thought would be secret (as happened several times when I talked to the daughters in German on this side of the pond. It turns out that lots of people in Cincinnati, at least, speak German fluently enough to understand us, darn it! Another reason why I don't accept the canard that Americans don't speak foreign languages. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-08-24 16:41 |
| #1 You wanna play with your computers and cell phones and speak loudly in tongues, then learn to love jail cells. |
| Posted by: Perfesser 2006-08-24 16:16 |