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Wrong title. Duplicate: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1683097/posts |
Posted on 08/13/2006 7:43:02 PM PDT by rawhide
...a British Airways flight from Heathrow to New York has been turned back because a mobile phone - banned at the time - was on board.
The British Airways flight was turned back after a mobile phone was heard ringing at the back of the plane.
No one on board admitted owning the phone so flight BA179 with 217 passengers on board returned to Heathrow as a precautionary measure.
A businessman who was among the passengers told BBC News 24: "When the plane took off a mobile phone started ringing.
"One and a half hours later the captain made the decision, having spoken to his company, that we need to come back. He dumped fuel and we're now back at Heathrow."
BA apologise for the inconvenience but said "safety is our number one priority and we will always err on the side of caution".
Before the restrictions were changed, travellers had been told to expect more cancellations and delays at UK airports.
Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott visited Stansted airport to see how the security measures were being put into practice. Officers are continuing to question 23 people in the inquiry.
What an idiot.
"Congratulations, whoever you are. Because you're a whinging coward, we have to turn this plane around now. Hope you're happy. Oh, and by the way, we're going to make *sure* your name and address make the papers once we figure out who you are."
Oy
"One and a half hours later the captain made the decision, having spoken to his company, that we need to come back"
? An hour and a half?
Am I reading that right? The phone rang on take off and they waited for an hour and a half to turn around? Can anybody explain the logic behind that (I'm not familiar with phones as detonators, but once it rang, wouldn't it have detonated whatever was meant to be detonated?_)
Probably a prepaid Tracphone bought at Wal-Mart.
Avon calling.
Could it have been due to the 'Allah Akbar' ringtone?
You are exactly right.
In general, airlines should not expect a 1.5 hour delay between the bbbbbbbrrrrrrrringgggggg and the booooooooooooom in the case of actual bombs on board.
Offtopic, but I wonder if Tracphone and the like will be able to survive what will surely be impending legislation.
Maybe a "Pray for the dead and the dead will pray for you" ringtone.
...Unless they wanted a 1.5 hour's worth of terror.
Sure, but there will be a 10 day waiting period with background checks and permits required.
If it was going to be used to set off a bomb they wouldn't have heard it ring, they would have heard a boom. However, there could have been communications going on between terrorist. I am wondering why it took them an hour and a half to turn around.
I would think it should be easy for the police to trace down whose phone was ringing? Maybe look at each passenger incoming calls list on each phone? Unless the guilty party erased the list?
I wonder why the guilty person did not speak up, especially after they were told they were returning to Heathrow?
That was probably the thinking of the pilot and ground crew. The fact that the plane wasn't already falling out of the sky was probably a good sign that the phone wasn't hooked up to a bomb.
The plane had to dump fuel. Probably went out over the ocean, dumped fuel, turned around and returned.
I've been wondering what the great Paul Harvey is going to do. He's a sponsor in his ads for these phones. Gonna' drop it, I suspect.
In fact the whole mess may go belly up. Not a good business model when spare parts are used to kill Americans.
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