12 Passengers Arrested After Flight to India Returns to Amsterdam

[Lochloosa]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,209940,00.html

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — Twelve people aboard a flight that was diverted to Amsterdam Wednesday were arrested at the airport after they displayed suspicous behavior relating to cellphones, Dutch airport authorities told FOX News.

Dutch F-16s escorted a Northwest Airlines flight bound for India back to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport on Wednesday after the crew reported some passengers were behaving suspiciously, authorities said.

Several passengers on Northwest Airlines Flight NW0042 to Bombay were taken off the plane for questioning after it landed safely, airport spokeswoman Pamela Kuypers said. Others were questioned at the gate.

A U.S. passenger named Alpa, who did not wish to use her last name, told AP television reporters she had seen police handcuff and remove around 11 men of south Asian appeareance from the plane before other passengers. She said she didn't see what happened but heard from other passengers the men had aroused suspicion by getting out their mobile phones.

[bahrbearian]

1. So what happened to the White people the were using their Phones?

[mike_c]

2. white people = good; brown people = terrorists....

Any other questions?

[bahrbearian]

6. Is it O.K. to check my text messages??

[saigon68]

34. Its those "Pesky Brown People" again

They never learn their place do they?

The next thing you know these uppity people will want to use the same toilets that WHITES use.

</sarcasm>

[pitohui]

3. what were they planning to do?

it sounds like the 11 men planned to all use their cell phones at once to bring down the plane

did they really think that was going to work? if so, they've watched too much teevee

[soothsayer]

5. they should try flushing all the toilets at once!

[MADem]

9. Yeah, they'd just end up in Kabul at best

But who knows, they don't do full checked-bag screens over at that end of the world, maybe the mobile-punching passengers thought they were 'dialing their luggage'...or maybe they were dunces who didn't think the "no cell phone use" announcement applied to them.

We'd have to be there to know the full story.

[Kailassa]

14. That's rather a leap of the imagination ...

The world is not really so full of Muslims wanting to commit suicide
that they will waste the lives of a whole cricket team of them to
bring down one plane.

[pitohui]

15. i was asking, not telling

how do you suppose the "plot" was supposed to work?

i may as well admit to some skepticism that using one's cell phone on plane will cause plane to crash, since some of us and i might even be one of them have used cell phone on plane before and it did not crash -- all it did was drain the cell phone faster than normal

[Kailassa]

16. There is no reason yet to assume there was any plot.

Look at the actual information. "They" were doing something out of the ordinary with cellphones.

It's only the current climate of "terror" that makes things like this seem like a problem.

Just like two days ago when an American-bound plane had to turn around and go back to Holland.
All because a stewardess noticed a water bottle and a "strange smell".
The water bottle was tested, and found to contain water ... surprise, surprise.
and no cause for any smell was found.

Flights are being held up and turned around, and innocent passengers kicked off them for no
good reason these days. All because the fearful and gullible population have been taught that
flying is dangerous and that young Muslim men might be terrorists.

[zonkers]

4. Maybe they were just a gang of flash mobbers.

[bahrbearian]

7. That is too funny ..LOL

[plasticsundance]

8. The Dutch want to steal the spotlights from the Brits

Maybe Bush-the-Idiot-King will claim it was US intelligence that tipped off the Dutch to the plot.

[Puglover]

10. US "Official" quote..

"It was behavior that average passengers wouldn't do."


Now tell me, EXACTLY what is an "average passenger"?

The. World. Has. Gone. Batshit.

[zreosumgame]

11. Ah, you don't 'get it'

If they told you that, then they would have to change the definition. The old Catch-22 thing

[xchrom]

12. apparently that spokesperson has never flown southwest airlines

from sf to lax.

may i NEVER get on another southwest flight again.

[Earth_First]

13. TERROR! TERROR! ! TERROR!!!

Amazing how quiet the tail end of 2004 and most of 2005 was in respect to terror alerts. Must be an election year...

:shrug:

[rocktivity]

17. Can you bring and use a cell phone, PDA, or calculator on a plane?

Were these men sitting together? Did they take out their cell phones at the same time?

:shrug:
rocknation

[Olney Blue]

18. Hey! No questions allowed. Just sit back and stay scared.

[hedgehog]

19. According to CNN, it was US Air Marshals who spotted the behavior.

If the report was correct, this was not a case of normal cell phone use. Since the plane was bound for India, I'd venture to guess that there were other people aboard with brown skin. In other words, this doesn't appear to be a simple case of profiling young men as Moslem terrorists. There are at least two possibilities; people are jumping at shadows or there really are terrorists attempting to cause disasters. If an experienced and trained person saw something that wasn't right, I 'd rather see him/her error on the safe side.

[ShortnFiery]

20. "If an experienced and trained person saw something that wasn't right"

That one statement, in and of itself, is IMO quite a "leap of faith" given the sad state of Airline Security. :(

[hedgehog]

21. That's why I was careful to specify "experienced and trained."

Some cops are dumb and some are smart. I can believe that a smart cop could spot something that just isn't right. Of course, you always have the situation where store detectives harass black customers by following them around while the kid in the stock room is hauling stuff out the back door. I'm just open to the possibility that a good cop saw something that just wasn't right.

[ShortnFiery]

22. Agreed. But who EXACTLY defines what is "Just not right"?

When I was finishing up my Masters I had to live across the country from my husband in a low rent, working class neighborhood ... lots of folks in my apartment building smoked pot and I wouldn't be surprised if there was some more Heavy Dealing going on with "harder drugs."

My shaved head husband who was Active Duty Marine Corps and with skin as light as a sheet came to visit me. As he walked in DOORS SLAMMED and people scampered. After he left I had to assure the pot heads in my apartment complex that hubby was "just a Marine" not a NARC. Why? Because to people of working class culture who often smoke pot, my shaved head Caucasian husband visiting was, "something that just wasn't right."

Sort of like, the Brit Intelligence SHOOTING A BRAZILIAN MAN SEVEN TIMES IN THE HEAD?

My point: WHO EXACTLY (their race, religion, culture, background) decides what's normal and SOMETHING THAT JUST ISN'T RIGHT?

[hedgehog]

23. Are you saying that your husband was a victim of racial profiling?

It sounds like the pot heads knew what NARCS look like and how they carry themselves and reacted accordingly. I'm presuming that as a Marine, your husband has a certain "take-charge" attitude in the way he carries himself.

Some cops are bad. The Brits you mentioned didn't even know what their suspect looked like. While they were shooting the Brazilian, who was watching for the guy they were suspicious of? Some of the Brits are nothing but trigger happy terrorists in uniform. The SAS pulled off several legal murders against the IRA over the years.

On the other hand, a good beat cop is expected to identify normal behaviors and suspicious behavior on a daily basis. It is not beyond the realm of possibilities that an US Air Marshall saw suspicious behavior. I'm just saying we should get all the facts before leaping to judgment.

[ShortnFiery]

24. No, no matter how well a person is trained we are all VICTIMS

of our race and cultural background. My neighbors KNEW better than to stereotype my husband as such. They were not stupid. But still, the sight of a clean cut, white man with ultra short hair was "something that was not quite right." (you don't see guys who LOOK like that in this neighborhood).

With the exception of Police Officers with YEARS of pertinent experience within the Middle Eastern Culture, or An Officer who has knowledge/background - I regret that a review of the sociological literature consistently indicates that we view OUR WORLD through our own CULTURAL biases. Yes, even if training has taught us more nuisance, what "seems not just right" will always be filtered through our PERSONAL background and life experiences.

That's why we need to recruit people of Middle Eastern backgrounds into our Intelligence fields. They seemingly do not pass background checks :( that's why we need to better help integrate with them ... better interact socially to understand people within the Muslim Communities in the USA.

[hedgehog]

25. I've got no argument with recruiting from a broader base.

I have to laugh at crime shows featuring a multi-ethnic cast of FBI agents. I can remember when the FBI was all male, all white and they had better have short hair and well shined shoes. Again, I am merely suggesting that here be no rush to judgment. This is not a case of jumpy passengers asking to have other passengers removed because they might be speaking Arabic. These were at least two Air Marshalls who must have been on a thousand flights that saw something that rang alarm bells. Maybe it was a false alarm, but that doesn't mean that there was no cause for alarm. In the circumstances, I can understand their decision that it was better to be safe than sorry.

[ShortnFiery]

26. Based on my background, it would lead me to the opposite

conclusion. Most definitely, we need a broader base of intelligence agents.

Nope, I initially believe that they were nabbed PRIMARILY by their "skin tone," not their "cell phone" behavior.

We clearly disagree. My background has lead me to default to the negative, racial discrimination.

Guess we'll have to wait for "the facts" of this case to be revealed, if ever. :shrug:

[goodhue]

33. Jumping at shadows methinks

I've been on NW flights from Amsterdam to Mumbai, and you are correct to point out that most folks on the plane would be south asian--probably about 80%. But I'm most curious about presence and backgrounds of US air marshalls. Why were they there and what is there experience with south asians?

[lynne]

27. Using cell phones are a definite No-No on an airplane -

I flew last week and we were given instruction as we boarded that we were not to use our cell's and the very last statement before takeoff was to turn off and put away all cell phones. We were instructed that we could not use our cell's until we had landed.

I understand that in Britain you cannot even bring a cell phone on board. At least, that was the case last week.

If 12 people got out their cells after take-off, that would certainly rouse suspicion and would be in direct violation of pre-flight instructions. The pilot's response seems appropriate given the situation.

[ShortnFiery]

28. Makes you wonder if 12 light skinned Northern Germans

were text messaging their girlfriends at the front of the plane ... I wonder? If the AUTHORITIES would have, instead just ASKED THEM what exactly they were doing rather than default automatically to the bat shit craze of immediate arrest?

[lynne]

29. As far as I'm concerned, if there were 6 blind albino's who pulled out -

- cell phones right after being instructed NOT to do so, then the pilot has every right to turn that buggy around and get them off his plane.

Just ask them? Why? They've been given very direct and basic instructions that they were not willing to follow. Given the security reasons for banning use of cell phones during flight - including text messaging - their failure to comply and cooperate is enough to warrant their removal from the flight no matter what their intent was.

[ShortnFiery]

32. But what if one of those 6 blind albino's was you and do YOU

KNOW for A FACT that they were give clear instructions? Also, why didn't they just ASK them to stop perhaps, sharing their trip photos saved on their cells and put the damn things away?

Our whole world is going to 1984 and all the sheeple care about is, Big Brother please keep me safe ... I'll give up everything Daddy! Just please protect me. :(

[lynne]

35. I've been on 8 flights in the past 4 months -

- including three in the past 17 days. In each and every flight we were told at least twice that all cell phones had to be turned OFF and could not be used until we landed and were given the ok. My last flight - after the increased security - included new signs at the airport boarding gate with a picture of a cell phone that had a slash through it. I doubt I was on the only 8 flights departing from the only airports with clear and precise cell phone instructions.

It's not a matter of sheeple. It's a matter of cooperating with the security measures implemented to reduce the risk of potential problems for all passengers. It has come to the point where people will not being allowed to fly because they are unwilling to abide by a few simple, basic rules and regs. Of course, that is certainly their choice and they should be willing to accept the consequences for their behavior.

[ThsMchneKilsFascists]

30. many mobile phones these days play music and games

Could this be what was going on?
:shrug:
I presume no bomb was found on the plane?

[peacebuzzard]

31. Correct. There has to be more to the story.

any flight any day has dozens of cell phones out gaming or ear plugged in for music. This flight was already en route and electronic devices are
allowed at cruise altitude.
I would like to know more about the strange behavior. Seems to me like there are more strange behaviors onboard (or anywhere) than normal most everywhere.