I received this link to a story about some crazyness on a US airline a few weeks ago. It sounds scary, but it turns out its just a bunch of CRAP!!!!. Here is a piece of information that I read today, from a good source.
“Apparently there was some disinformation being discussed about a recent incident at LAX. I have been asked to clarify what happened during the situation. The following are the basic facts concerning Northwest Flight 327:
On June 29, 2004, a group of Syrian musicians were reported to have acted suspiciously aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 327, a flight from Detroit, Michigan to Los Angeles, California. There were 12 musicians and one booking agent who had entered the country approximately 30 days prior to the flight. They came to the U.S. on an Entertainment type visa which is good for a set amount of days.
Also on this flight was a news reporter/journalist named Anne Jacobsen who was flying with her husband. During the flight this journalist claimed the Syrians were acting suspiciously. This included making “eye contact” and carrying a “suspicous” looking McDonald’s paper bag. Supposedly they were also going in and out of the lavatory several times. In addition, the Syrians allegedly did not sit down when approaching LAX and the flight attendants had to tell them to sit down repeatedly. Jacobsen advised a flight attendant of her concerns and she was told the situation was being taken care of. There were two federal air marshals (FAM) aboard the flight as well. None of them observed any suspicious activity.
Once the flight landed the Department of Airport Police, LAPD, and the FBI responded. The FAM spoke with Jacobsen and her husband and got their side of the story. Meanwhile the FBI and another FAM interviewed the booking agent and one of the Syrians who was acting the most suspicious according to Jacobsen. It was determined the Syrians were here to conduct a few concerts and would be leaving within a few days. At the time the visas appeared to be expired but it was determined later that they were not and that the individuals were all here legally. The group played a concert in Southern California and then flew to New Jersey. They all left the country on July 10, 2004.
The journalist Jacobsen has taken what was a non-issue and fooled the media into believing she has discovered this glaring weakness in airport security. The flight attendants, the FAMs, and the pilots were all interviewed following this “incident”. None of them had any concerns about the actions of the Syrians. In fact two flight attendants advised what Jacobsen said could not have happened. But some people refuse to let facts get in the way of a good story. The media has not done their job by researching the incident.
Anyway, apparently there are some people who have raised their own concerns about what to do should an incident like this occur on a flight they are on. First of all let me repeat that nothing happened on this particular flight. In the meantime use your common sense, report anything you deem suspicious to a flight attendant, and don’t interject yourself into a situation unless asked or there is an obvious “situation” which needs to be addressed. There may be armed FAMs aboard your flight. Remember it is the pilot who rules the ship and what he/she wants goes. The flight attendants are not there to be waiters and waitresses. There first mission is the safety of the passengers and crew. Use them as your conduit to convey your concerns.
I hope this helps those people who had questions.”
On a lighter note, I finally ordered our new camera, I changed my mind at the last minute and bought the Canon Powershot S500 instead of the Canon SD10 or the Nikon SLR, but I love our little Canon that we have now and wanted to stay with the same form-factor. So hopefully that will be here on Monday or so.
After work yesterday I went home and inserted the correct MAC address into my router’s ACL. As soon as the router rebooted the Airport Express came right up and then I was piping iTunes through the stereo wirelessly. Print Center found the printer through Rendevous and I printed out a test page and it worked flawlessly. What a great purchase.