Posted on 08/17/2002 6:54:18 AM PDT by PJeffQ
Rash of flight credential thefts reaches Midlands
By LORA HINES
Staff Writer
The FBI usually couldn't be bothered with investigating minor break-ins at a hotel.
But two room burglaries in Columbia earlier this week have their attention.
A couple of weeks ago, airlines were warned by the Transportation Security Administration to watch for people with stolen credentials posing as airline officials.
The warning went out after two flight attendants said their uniforms, crew-bag tags, flight attendant wings, flight books, ID cards and a key to an airplane storage compartment had been stolen from their New York apartment. Little else was taken.
Dozens of U.S. airline flight crew credentials and passports have been stolen in a worldwide rash of hotel room break-ins since Sept. 11.
And, in May, a delivery truck containing uniforms for mechanics and other flight-line workers was stolen in Kansas City, Mo. The truck was later recovered, but the uniforms for employees of three airlines -- were gone.
The thefts are alarming because they are more frequent and because the thieves pass up valuables such as cameras in favor of items that could outfit a flight crew, said Capt. Steve Luckey, chairman of the national security committee at the Air Line Pilots Association.
The US Airways unit of the Association of Flight Attendants warned its members last month about the dangers of "identity theft" while traveling.
"Post 9/11 security is more stringent than ever before," US Airlines spokesman David Catelveter said.
On Monday, a US Airways flight attendant staying at the Sheraton Hotel on Bush River Road in Columbia learned firsthand the value thieves put on flight credentials.
Lisa Minor, 31, from the Pittsburgh area, told Lexington County sheriff's deputies her flight badge, airline credentials and uniform flight wings had been taken from her room.
Burglars also broke into the adjacent room of pilot Tim Cummings, 34, of San Rafael, Calif., and stole his wallet, $180, a laptop computer and DVD player. They didn't take his airline credentials.
No other rooms were burglarized at the hotel that night, Sheriff James Metts said.
"It's highly unusual," he said. "After Sept. 11, when you've got something like this, you've got to make (the FBI) aware of it."
FBI agents said they've contacted the Columbia Metropolitan Airport and US Airways about the thefts, but they would say little more about the investigation. Airport officials did not return calls.
Lexington detectives have not identified suspects.
Metts couldn't recall other break-ins in which flight credentials had been taken.
Staff Writer Carolina Bolado, the Washington Post and the Detroit Free-Press contributed to this story.
If ya get on a plane and there's a bearded stewardess aboard - get off.
. . .and do they use fingerprinting for ID entry to the planes? (probably not. . .makes too much sense. . .)
You are thinking defensively, as we are directed to do since 9-11. A proper response would make any changes in our lives unnecessary. When this nation did respond properly to threats, we were not attacked.
Don't think about security. Wipe out training camps in Iran and Syria and threaten outright war if these are rebuilt. Request that the OFFICIAL, gov't-sponsored Arab newspapers stop continual, blatant anti-American propaganda that brews hatred and creates militants. Cut-off assistance to countries that refuse. We give $100M a year to Palestinians --- does an average Palestinian even knows that? We feed the people that are dancing on our graves every time we have casualties.
Stop our idiotic behavior abroad, stop sleeping with the enemy, and don't think about the airport security.
...unless of course you hear them saying things such as..."at the end of the day" and "...mistakes were made..."then that just means that they are funny Democrats.
"Agree, on the package deal. . .but of of course, there is in reality, no such thing. Reason has given way to political correctness and so good judgement is hampered if not made null and void.
In the meantime, the airport security issues should be addressed, but probably will not be, for the very same reason, which is simply the lack of it.
That's right. They have been too busy looking for pot heads and other threats to our morality...
We pretty much all agree it would be impossible for the terrorists to again hijack a plane in the same manner as before. The passengers will fight back.
So their next option would be to maintain fake ID, pilot or stewardess uniforms, etc. and board as crew. Then make their way into the cockpit, at which time the door is secured behind them.
Securing the cockpit, as the airlines have done, may actually now give them an advantage, because if they can get into the cockpit, they can keep everybody else out and fly the plane into "whatever."
If her rifle has a curved magazine, yes.
I made no such assumption.
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