Posted on 12/02/2009 7:56:07 PM PST by machogirl
The interesting thing is that a few, key underlying elements of the story jibe in all the accounts. Non-English speaking men, apparently part of the same group. One or more disobeying flight crew orders. Plane returned to terminal. All passengers disembarked. New crew.
I have no idea what actually went down, and draw no conclusions. But while the details and drama vary wildly from the extremes of ho-hum to dry run, there seems to be no dispute that something happened significant enough to cause a plane to return to the terminal, disembark passengers, and replace the crew.
Snopes jumped on this one in record time. First web posting of the Petruna letter appears to be Nov. 30 and 2 days later, Snopes is already all over it.
Maybe Nov. 17 was just a bad day for air travel. Coincidentally, on that same morning, a computer glitch originating in Atlanta that affected the collection of flight plans caused major, widespread delays.
on next hour, first 10 minutes, the Chaplain speaks to Steve Gill. Gill says it’s legit, he’s talked to “Tedd” who’s being threatened with his job.
Snopes does not say a dry run did not occur. Snopes says the newspaper did not report it as a dry run. AirTrans does not want the news to say “Terrorists Dry Run on AirTrans” because that tends to hurt future business. You asked “who writes this stuff?” Well, it happens to be someone more easily identifiable than you Mr. “Karma Police”. His name is Ted Petruna. He works for NASA and was a Navy diver. There are other passensgers who have confirmed his version of events. The flight crew was so convinced, they refused to fly the plane and they had to be replaced. This is confirmed by AirTrans. Please join those of us who no longer live in September 10. Next thing you know, you’ll be telling us all that Islam is Peace.
Hey! A kindred spirit! I'm so bad that I have NEVER owned an automatic because that's not driving, that's steering; I've loved driving a stick since my dad and brothers taught me how at the age of 14, almost 40 years ago. I have a special love for very winding backroads and when viable, will take the scenic route even if it adds another hour. But even freeway/highway driving is fun for me.
So glad to know I'm not alone!
You know, that's a very good point. I heard about the same account on a few radio news reports, and as somebody who actually caused an airplane to have to return to the gate to boot me off (I had a fever of 104; they thought it was contagious; it wasn't), I know what a VERY big deal that is. So I should have caught it, too.
Having had long if mostly fringe working experience with the news media, I know absolutly how EASY, shockingly EASY, it is for a "coverup" to happen not involving any kind of lying or cover at all, but by simply ignoring and not reporting something. Truly, people are conditioned to believe with all their hearts that if it wasn't reported on the news, it didn't happen and those who say it did are liars because the media isn't backing them up.
It's a dangerous situation; I really think that your catching of the red flags on this is right on the money. People, we should ALL apply very heavy and critical filters when consuming news -- and not set it on default to "hoax" -- that's dangerous.
anyone listen to the witness on the Steve Gill Show? any thoughts on the witness and story?
The problems I see with this report.
First, the guy says he’s in 1st class, but AirTrans doesn’t do first class, they do business class. Sure, the guy could be mistaken, but I would think a person would know if they paid for a business class ticket rather than a 1st class ticket.
Second, the guy describes in detail an event that happened in the back of the plane, while he was sitting in the front of the plane in “1st class”. Even if he could hear snippets of a converation from the back to the front of the plane, how would he know that the guys were watching porno, that they had “shot it last night”?
How would he have known whether they used a mirror or not? How would he have known it was from a strip club? What strip club allows people to film?
Then he describes getting up from his seat during taxiing, and manhandling passengers. I can’t believe the airline would have allowed him to stay on the plane after doing so, without getting some sort of statement.
Now, he doesn’t SAY the guy understood him, but earlier the guy with the cell phone was said to not speak english, but now he gives the guy instructions in english, and the guy obeys him?
Next, I don’t believe a new crew would be ready in 5 minutes. More importantly, I can’t imagine ANY chance that the old crew would leave the airplane, leaving the passengers unsupervised for 5 minutes before a new crew came on board. Who was guarding the cockpit?
Last, he says the flight was cancelled, but the news report clearly states the flight went on 2.5 hours late once the incident was over. Since it’s simple to verify that a flight left or not, I can’t imagine the paper got that wrong.
With so many things that appear unbelievable, it is hard to accept the story. Things that would make the story more believable:
1) An actual first-hand account by Tedd, with a confirmation that he WAS a passenger. We have an e-mail from some unknown source CLAIMING an e-mail from Tedd.
2) Corroberation from the “Texan”, or from other passengers who were on the plane. We have two news article interviews of passengers, neither of which mention most of what this guy mentions, neither mention pornography.
btrl
Compared to the scales of destruction that have occurred in other areas, the United States has been blessed in terms of loss of life on a mass scale. The Civil War was the last occurrence of magnitude in the US. I’m not diminishing 911, but when you consider the 80,000 that died in Dresden in one night, the 100,000 from Nagasaki, or the deaths from the typhoon in Indonesia a few years ago, 911 was not anywhere near that scale.
People think it would be very difficult to top 911. Strategically, considering their tools, it would be difficult, but in terms of topping it in loss of life, it’s been done quite a few times in other parts of the world.
My thoughts.....there’s no way the whole thing went down and NO ONE got it on cell phone camera. Someone would have filmed it, just for security’s sake.
Certainly is weird. But we are living in a “world of weird”.
Umm. I guess we’re in agreement then. Other than it seems my Death-O-Meter is set to trip at a lower body count than yours appears to be I would not disagree.
Mine just goes off and warns me well before we have a Dresden. I know it may seem hypersensitive of me, but these sub-incidents (and potential sub-incidents) tend to concern me.
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