US sends BA jet back to Britain

[muriel_volestrangler]

Three hours into the flight the British Airways Boeing 747, which was carrying 239 passengers, had to turn around and head back to Heathrow Airport.
...
BA flight 175 landed back at Heathrow at 1730 GMT - more than six hours after take-off.

The BA spokeswoman would not give the US authorities' reason for refusing the man permission to land.

The Metropolitan Police said the man, believed to be of European citizenship, has not been arrested.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4169655.stm

Isn't there some way of holding him at JFK, and then putting him on a flight back to London? ie not screw up everyone else's day?

[Rebel_with_a_cause]

1. Is Cat Stevens threatening US airspace again?

:shrug:

[ogradda]

2. mmwwhhaaa

o the horror!:evilgrin:

[nine23]

17. Are they "closing in" on Gordon Lightfoot yet?

Yeah, I ripped that from Letterman's monologue the night they "took down" Cat Stevens...it's simply too fucking funny NOT to use when the situation calls...

[ohioliberal]

3. They shouldn't have let him on in the first place

Where the hell are those flight risk lists?

[AllyCat]

5. That was my thought. Why didn't they check this BEFORE arrival

What if the plane had run out of fuel...turn them back and risk the deaths of all on board because we couldn't get organized enough to stop this "risk" from getting on the plane in the first place?

The person was probably wearing something that made another passenger uneasy and they reported the person to the US authorities.

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. They would have gone to somewhere sane - ie Canada

I'm sure the Canadian authorities would be capable of detaining someone at an airport, and putting him on a plane back to the UK (if they really thought he shouldn't enter the country (note that he wasn't arrested when he got back to the UK).

I think the US authorities probably wanted to punish BA, who they think haven't checked the 'no fly list' properly. This way, BA has to spened loads in extra operations costs, compensation and expenses for the delayed passengers, etc.

[AllyCat]

9. And does this in turn create more business for our failing

airlines? Lets make everyone as poor as our country. Jeez...

[DBoon]

13. Yes this is a power play

Showing BA that the US is the boss here.

[amazona]

11. time doesn't allow

They say people would have to check-in 5 hours early in LON to go to the U.S. if they were to interdict all pax before take-off. British Airways has decided it makes more sense to have an occasional plane turned back than to have all of many flights every day require people to be screened in London five hours (!) before departure. I agree with them.

There was never any danger of the plane running out of fuel. There are alternative places to land, such as Halifax, Canada or Bangor, Maine when large U.S. airports have to refuse an aircraft.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

[passy]

10. the ones full of spelling mistakes.

I mean whenever they write down Arab names they mess up the spelling so bad that they end up stopping 80 year old women and children. Not to mention people who have similar names. I wonder how many Mohamed Alis they have on their lists?

[DELUSIONAL]

4. That is a damned expensive trip

And probably the airlines have to pick up the tab.

Could it be that the "rejected" man's name was on a list because his name sort of kind of resembled someone who may or may not be a bad guy?

Once on the list apparently it is nearly impossible to have your name removed -- Sen. Ted Kennedy for example. My bet his name was deliberately but on the list.

[jmatthan]

6. How much longer can you live this paranoiac environment?

eom

[Spinzonner]

8. Wonder who got the order

to generate some phony terrorist news to deflect media attention and time from the WMD-search disbanding story.

:tinfoilhat:

[Wilms]

12. The passenger was Osama.

He was on his way here for the coronation but, like Kid Rock, the admin figured it wouldn't look good and had to shit-can the invite.

[jmowreader]

14. So let me get this straight

You can write a database program that will compare all of the records in two databases--the flight manifest and the DHS Watch List, in this case. If you have a bad-ass computer, it won't take long to run the program.

Because the DHS can't put one of these computers at one of the biggest airports in the world, British Airways had to:

* come up with 239 additional seats going to the US
* pay for six hours' worth of fuel for a 747
* pay for a complete flight crew's time

There have to be better ways of doing this. Hell, land him in Gander or somewhere, drop him off and continue with the mission.

[Spinzonner]

15. What's not good for the goose

is good for Gander ?

[jmowreader]

16. Cute.

From my POV, the DHS fucked up and sent British Airways the bill for it.