Airliner delayed after passengers carry on drinks (purchased at the airport)

ap on Riverside Press Enterprise ^ | 8/18/06 | AP - Los Angeles

[NormsRevenge]

LOS ANGELES

An airliner bound for New York was delayed nearly an hour Friday after the crew discovered some passengers had carried on drinks purchased at the airport, and the pilot requested the plane be rechecked by security screeners.

American Airlines Flight 40 was scheduled to leave for John F. Kennedy International Airport at 11 a.m. and was being boarded when the drinks were discovered.

"The passengers were deplaned at the captain's request," said Nancy Castles, a spokeswoman for Los Angeles International Airport. "The liquids were surrendered or tossed or discarded. They conducted a security check of the plane, and the passengers were allowed to come back."

The flight carrying 150 passengers to New York left at 11:57 a.m., said American Airlines spokesman Tim Wagner.

Federal Transportation Safety Administration spokeswoman Jennifer Peppin said the passengers had already passed an airport security checkpoint and were waiting in a secured section of the American Airlines terminal when they purchased the drinks.

Still, she said, new security rules require that even drinks purchased in a secured area must be consumed or discarded before a person gets on a plane.

"We keep a lookout at the gate, but with a lot of people around and with carryon bags and stuff they made their way on board," Wagner said.

[conservativehusker]

Come on...make them drink them in fron of you or throw them out and get on with life....we can be TOO cautious and crazy..Unless of course they where 20 year old Mooslimb males..

[Just another Joe]

Still, she said, new security rules require that even drinks purchased in a secured area must be consumed or discarded before a person gets on a plane.

New security rules remind me of the "Zero tolerence" rules some educational institutions go by.

Zero tolerence = Zero common sense = Zero brains to use = Zero reponsibility

[The Blitherer]

...in other news, the drinks were being consumed by three senior citizens and a five-year-old girl from Alabama, all of whom were immediately seized and strip searched as suspected terrorists...

[308MBR]

I would have to be pretty well lit to even tolerate the crap one must endure to fly commercial these days.

[mockingbyrd]

or a muslim woman with bleach in her facial wash.

[Kirkwood]

Slap a fine on them for delaying the flight.

[randog]

I would have to be pretty well lit to even tolerate the crap one must endure to fly commercial these days.

I'm in a bad mood before I even get to the airport.

[OldFriend]

If the food brought into the airport beyond the security checkpoint cannot be vouched for we might as well give up the fight.

The insanity of these rules are obvious.

[xenophiles]

So American Airlines will deliberately add to departure delays in zealous adherence to an utterly pointless rule. I'll bear that in mind the next time I plan air travel.

[CharlesWayneCT]

I'm flying on sunday, and my plan is to bring an empty bottle on board and fill it with water from the bathroom sink.

I'll make sure to let the flight attendent know before I do it, so they don't think I brought the water on board with me.

My hope is that when I tell her what I am doing, she'll give me a water from the drink tray before the plane takes off.

[BookaT]

Can't you just ask for water when you get on the plane?

I have never been refused a glass of water when asked for. May have to wait until everyone gets seated but will probably get it before the door shuts.

I would also recommend not drinking the water from the airplane's sink.

[squirt]

It is nice to know that you will not be on the American flight I'm on.

[zeugma]

Zero tolerence = Zero common sense = Zero brains to use = Zero reponsibility

I think the fact that we let them do this to us is completely insane. It's not like the fact that several common innocuous liquids can be combined to lethal effect is something that is newly discovered. The government has known that such a thing has been possible all along. Just about  everything  that they are doing at airports these days is window dressing designed to cow the masses into submission through irrational fear.

I'd like to think they have almost reached the limit of what they can do to us before we stand up and say "no more phony crap", but I'm not so sure. There are plenty of supporters of this lunacy even on this supposedly conservative forum. Perhaps when they force us to strip and put on hospital gowns before we board a plane, someone will call their bullshit for what it is.

[Oztrich Boy]

Slap a fine on them for delaying the flight.

The plane crew?

[cgbg]

Perhaps when they force us to strip and put on hospital gowns before we board a plane, someone will call their bullshit for what it is

Remember the old "Candid Camera" TV show. I would love to see a modern version where a phony "security" booth makes passengers do all kinds of wacky things to see what it will take to make them refuse to get on the plane.

You know, tell passengers to strip so their entire bodies must be spray-painted green, or make them wear a dunce hat etc. :-)

[zeugma]

Remember the old "Candid Camera" TV show. I would love to see a modern version where a phony "security" booth makes passengers do all kinds of wacky things to see what it will take to make them refuse to get on the plane.

The problem with this is that reality has so far outstripped the absurd, that a candid camera crew wouldn't even be noticed. I expect hospital gowns to be standard within 5 years. All I can say is that it will be extremely ugly. (Pun intended) 

[xenophiles]

It is nice to know that you will not be on the American flight I'm on.

Let me see if I have this straight...

I think that this rule is pointless and therefore... you don't want to share a flight with me. Is it because you think that my skepticism will harm you, perhaps by destroying the aircraft? Or do you simply not like the company of people who think critically about such things?

Or do you think as follows (forgive me, but some people do think this way so I have to ask):
The rule is against terrorists.
Xenophiles is against the rule.
Therefore Xenophiles is a terrorist.

[mewzilla]

I'm flying on sunday, and my plan is to bring an empty bottle on board and fill it with water from the bathroom sink.

=8-0

Airline Water Supplies