Air France Jan 1 flight diverted to Canada

Reuters ^ | 01/02/04 | By Jeffrey Hodgson

[witnesstothefall]

TORONTO - An Air France flight from New York to Paris was diverted to St. John's, Newfoundland, on New Year's Day after a passenger checked in baggage but did not board the plane, officials said on Friday.

Air France said in a statement that its team in New York realized shortly after flight AF023 from New York to Paris took off that they had mistakenly loaded the bag.

"This mistake was the result of a misunderstanding with a passenger at check-in, who canceled his trip because he had excess baggage to pay," the statement said.

"Even though this is a very frequent passenger on Air France lines and he is well known by the company's staff, the captain preferred to land in Newfoundland in order to unload the luggage loaded by mistake," it added.

St John's airport officials said the diverted flight was treated as an emergency, with 268 passengers and crew taken off the plane and the local police bomb disposal unit called in.

"When he landed we handled it as if it was a possible explosive detection issue...I think it was a pilot discretion (decision), just to be safe," said Rex LeDrew, president of the St. John's International Airport Authority. He said the plane left about four hours later.

Air France canceled several flights between Paris and Los Angeles over the Christmas period because of security concerns. U.S. fighter jets have escorted some of its flights over U.S. airspace for fear that attackers might try to crash them into American targets.

[witnesstothefall]

France. Enough said.

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[Grig]

"An Air France flight from New York to Paris was diverted to St. John's, Newfoundland"

Boy, they must have been very worried to make sure they divireted it to a place with nothing worth attacking. :)

[onyx]

France. Enough said.

Ditto.

[Doc Savage]

Sure, he flies all the time on Air France, so much so that everybody knows him, but just this once he doesn't want to cough up an extra hundred to pay for some extra baggage.

Sure. No problem. Sure!!

[GeronL]

BAN France!

[Steven W.]

Exactly & the liberals try to spin this stuff as if the US is not doing anything for Homeland Security while ridiculing the treatment of suspect individual passengers or suspect flights. duh.

[goodnesswins]

Sheesh, 10 years ago some (middle eastern looking) guy in front of us at a line in California airport checked in with his bag, then ran out of the airport......at THAT time, my husband and I and another couple in line made sure the airport personnel knew we were NOT getting on THAT flight, unless they REMOVED his bags. We were assured the bag was removed.

In TODAY'S climate, it seems unbelievable that this would happen.

[aBootes]

Sure, he flies all the time on Air France, so much so that everybody knows him, but just this once he doesn't want to cough up an extra hundred to pay for some extra baggage

LOL. That's exactly what I thought when I read it, too.

[thucydides]

From the news to date on the disruption of international aviation, the outlines of a possible Al Qaeda plot become apparent. To make a big splash, they need casualties to exceed 3,000, the WTC toll. They cannot gain access to airliner cockpits. It seems obvious that the plan must call for the coordinated demolition of numerous airliners, with explosives concealed as toilet articles to be assembled on board, as suggested in the London Times, possibly as they are coming in for landing over urban areas. Many transatlantic flights arrive about the same time, as the pattern is for an airliner to depart Europe in the AM, and arrive here in PM, with an evening departure for an overnight return to Europe. I am only guessing, but it may be that the common link is not flight numbers or cities, but a group of flights with a similar arrival times, close enough that a shutdown of aviation after the first event would not thwart the plot. This would be extremely difficult to coordinate, and would require numerous suicide volunteers. Maybe some of the blowhard Islamicist types who are posing among their fellows as eager to die for Allah are in fact surreptitiously tipping the plot to avoid having to carry out their own destruction.