i'm still buying my airline tickets tomorrow

[ABEL]

my trip to NYC for Halloween better not get messed up tho

i usually take southwest airlines too, but they don't fly to nyc so i'll probably be taking american or delta.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/10/17/suspicious.baggage/index.html

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration ordered security searches of all U.S. commercial aircraft Friday after suspicious baggage was found in the bathrooms of two Southwest Airlines flights, U.S. officials told CNN.

The FBI is also investigating.

The bags, which were similar, were found Thursday night after the planes landed in Houston, Texas, and New Orleans, Louisiana.

The bags contained box cutters, the devices that were used in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks; a clay substance that resembled plastic explosive, and what is believed to be bleach, which investigators say could be thrown in someone's face to incapacitate them.

The bleach was disguised in bottles of suntan lotion; the clay was disguised as Play-Doh, sources said.

There was at least one note in one of the bags suggesting security is not as tight as it should be, sources said. An administration source told CNN that the note indicated that while the TSA was going a good job, the baggage with the suspicious items still got on board.

One flight was from Austin, Texas, to Houston; the second from Orlando, Florida, to New Orleans.

As a precautionary measure officials tell CNN that the Department of Homeland Security and the TSA have directed that all commercial aircraft in the U.S. fleet be searched by security personnel within the next 24 hours.

"We are working with the Department of Homeland Security on the discovery of items found late yesterday," an FBI spokeswoman said.

 

[zoney!]

nothing to really worry about. I highly doubt that it was a "terrorist" of sorts.

All Commercial aircraft will be checked in the next 24 hour anyway.

 

[MissVelvetDress_75]

not to sound like a jackass, but i find it funny how people are scared to fly. i am so use to it now that none of this phases me anymore. i spoke with several people on my flights this week who were nervous to fly because it was their first since 9/11 and I thought to myself "wow i have logged well over 50 flights since that date." anyway i guess if you don't fly much i could see how some of this could be a bit scary.

 

[Laura M]

I have never been on a plane, I am only afraid of them because my mum & dad hate flying and I hate hearing their tales of horror, my sister went to London with my dad she loved it but apparently he sweated the whole way over (50 mins they were flying)

 

[BAW]

I've always been a slightly nervous flier but I've flown 6 or 7 times since 9/11 and I'm no more or no less nervous than I was before

 

[ABEL]

i'm not scared to fly, i just don't want the trip getting messed up if they start cancelling flights or having to get to the airport twice as early as i do now. the only time i was nervous to fly was the first time i flew after 9/11. but i was on my way to see u2 and no one could keep me away from that!

so now they're saying this isn't terrorism related. there are truly some sick people in the world. but in the long run maybe some good will come out of it if security becomes better.

i hope nothing else happenes between now and then.

 

[BAW]

ah, I see what you're getting at...after my last trip, BOY do I know what you're getting at LOL!

Delays caused by stupid things like this are infuriating.


I sat on the floor at the Salt Lake City airport all night 2 years ago because some asswipe unplugged a metal detector.

 

[MissVelvetDress_75]

abel don't fret about this whole situation that unfolded.

it was planned.

[q]Box cutter finds prompt nationwide airliner search
NBC, MSNBC and news services


The Federal Aviation Administration ordered airlines Friday to search all domestic commercial aircraft within the next 24 hours after box cutters and other suspicious items were found aboard two Southwest Airlines planes, the Homeland Security Department said. The FBI was questioning a college student in connection with the items, which officials said appeared to have been planted as a test of security and not as a threat.

"I WILL TELL YOU that it does not appear to be a terrorist event and there is no imminent threat," FBI Director Robert Mueller said during a visit to the FBI field office in Houston. "There were no explosives. There was no imminent threat in terms of a capability to commit a terrorist act."
The inspections were prompted by the discovery of bags containing box cutters, Play-Doh and a small amount of bleach in suntan lotion bottles in the bathrooms aboard two Southwest Airlines flights Thursday night, federal law enforcement officials told NBC News on condition of anonymity.

The cases, which were discovered by Southwest employees doing routine maintenance, also included notes that said that while federal security screeners were doing a good job, they needed to improve. "Look what I was able to get through" was how officials who spoke to NBC News characterized the nature of the notes.

The notes said the packages were stashed on the planes in August. NBC News has learned that the Transportation Security Administration received an e-mail in September bragging about carrying similar packages onto airplanes.

A 20-year-old North Carolina man was being questioned by the FBI, according to a congressional

official and a senior law enforcement official, both of whom spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

It was not immediately clear whether the man, described as a college student, was being questioned as a suspect in the incident. The congressional official said the man had recently informed the TSA that he planned to put packages on planes in an effort to expose gaps in aviation security.

7,000 PLANES TO BE SEARCHED
Homeland Security Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse described the searches as "a precautionary measure." He said they would be conducted by government security personnel.

All airlines conduct routine searches of their planes. Roehrkasse said the government directive instructed airlines "to make sure the searches are done in a comprehensive and thorough manner."

The directive applies to more than 7,000 aircraft in the nation's commercial air fleet.

The bags were found on a plane that had just completed a flight to New Orleans flight from Orlando, Fla., and was scheduled to go on to San Diego that night, said Southwest spokeswoman Beth Harbin. The other aircraft was in Houston for routine maintenance.

Southwest Airlines said in a statement that the suspicious items appeared "intended to simulate a threat ... intended to challenge the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoint security procedures."

The airline said it had immediately inspected its entire fleet of 385 aircraft and found no additional items. It said it was cooperating with the TSA and the FBI in investigating the incidents and did not believe the items were connected to a plot to hijack the airplanes.

A senior U.S. official told The Associated Press that on both planes, the clay was formed to mimic a plastic explosive, while the bleach could have been used to demonstrate how a dangerous liquid could be smuggled aboard an aircraft. It could also be thrown in people's eyes to temporarily blind them.

"We're not sure this went through a security checkpoint," Ernie DeSoto, a spokesman for the Houston Airport System, told NBC affiliate KPRC-TV. "This may have come through a different avenue, so to speak. We're not sure how."

Susan Whitson, a spokeswoman for the FBI, said the investigation was being handled by some of the FBI's 84 joint terrorism task forces and the Department of Homeland Security.

The 19 al-Qaida operatives who hijacked planes and crashed them on Sept. 11, 2001, used box cutters as weapons.

Al-Qaida and its affiliated terrorist groups have long had an interest in using aircraft as weapons. The FBI and the Homeland Security Department have issued numerous warnings about possible tactics terrorists could use, including use of small carry-on items such as cameras to blow up airplanes.

TSA CHIEF TESTIFIES
The discovery of the suspicious items came a day after U.S. officials confirmed that undercover agents, posing as passengers, managed to slip knives and other weapons past security last week at Boston's Logan Airport.

James Loy, head of the TSA, testified Thursday before the House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee on aviation about a lack of equipment and funding to routinely screen airline passengers or their carry-on bags for explosives.

In addition, only 18 or 20 airports will get federal money to permanently install machines that detect bombs in checked baggage, Loy said.

But Loy declined to say how much more he thought the agency needed than the $5.2 billion Congress has set aside this year. That figure includes money for federal air marshals.

"We cannot provide world-class, effective security on the cheap," Loy said.


NBC News' Pete Williams, MSNBC.com's Mike Brunker and Alex Johnson and

The Associated Press contributed to this report.[/q]