Air Marshals Say Passenger Overreacted (NW flight)

Undercover federal air marshals on board a June 29 Northwest airlines flight from Detroit to LAX identified themselves after a passenger, “overreacted,” to a group of middle-eastern men on board, federal officials and sources have told KFI NEWS.

The passenger, later identified as Annie Jacobsen, was in danger of panicking other passengers and creating a larger problem on the plane, according to a source close to the secretive federal protective service.

Jacobsen, a self-described freelance writer, has published two stories about her experience at womenswallstreet.com, a business advice web site designed for women.

“The lady was overreacting,” said the source. “A flight attendant was told to tell the passenger to calm down; that there were air marshals on the plane.”

The middle eastern men were identified by federal agents as a group of touring musicians travelling to a concert date at a casino, said Air Marshals spokesman Dave Adams.

Jacobsen wrote she became alarmed when the men made frequent trips to the lavatory, repeatedly opened and closed the overhead luggage compartments, and appeared to be signaling each other.

“Initially it was brought to [the air marshals] attention by a passenger,” Adams said, adding the agents had been watching the men and chose to stay undercover.

Jacobsen and her husband had a number of conversations with the flight attendants and gestured towards the men several times, the source said.

“In concert with the flight crew, the decision was made to keep [the men] under surveillance since no terrorist or criminal acts were being perpetrated aboard the aircraft; they didn’t interfere with the flight crew,” Adams said.

The air marshals did, however, check the bathrooms after the middle-eastern men had spent time inside, Adams said.

FBI agents met the plane when it landed in Los Angeles and the men were questioned, and Los Angeles field office spokeswoman Cathy Viray said it’s significant the alarm on the flight came from a passenger.

“We have to take all calls seriously, but the passenger was worried, not the flight crew or the federal air marshals,” she said. “The complaint did not stem from the flight crew.”

Jacobsen’s husband Kevin told KFI NEWS he approached a man he thought was an air marshal after the flight had landed.

“We followed up with the casino,” Adams said. A supervisor verified they were playing a concert. A second federal law enforcement source said the concert itself was monitored by an agent.

“We also went to the hotel, determined they had checked into the hotel,” Adams said. Each of the men were checked through a series of databases and watch-lists with negative results, he said.

The source said the air marshals on the flight were partially concerned Jacobsen’s actions could have been an effort by terrorists or attackers to create a disturbance on the plane to force the agents to identify themselves.

Air marshals’ only tactical advantage on a flight is their anonymity, the source said, and Jacobsen could have put the entire flight in danger.

“They have to be very cognizant of their surroundings,” spokesman Adams confirmed, “to make sure it isn’t a ruse to try and pull them out of their cover.”

After reading the Jacobson story I emailed my son, who is a pilot with a major airline, and asked if he knew anything about it. He replied that he knew about the incident, and that the consensus opinion of the airline personnel he has discussed it with is that the incident was not as threatening as reported.

However, my son also included some of his own comments concerning airline security in general which I am including here:

I have heard of muslims doing their prayers while flying but usually on the long flights. I have never seen it myself and would guess that only the most devout of them do this in flight. Along with this story there has been some discussion of the possibility of them bringing onboard bomb components spread around a group of them and then assembling it onboard, hence the concern over folks like that going to the restroom one after another, but as far as I know that is just speculation at this point. You have to wonder after 9/11 if they would even be interested in blowing up an airliner with "only" 150 people on board without being able to get control of it and fly it into a target where they could kill many more. I agree that it is questionable how effective security is for these types since there is such a strong political correctness in place about profiling racial groups. The TSA is quickly becoming a typical ineffective and bloated bureaucracy in my opinion.

In Tampa we take an elevator to the ground floor for hotel pickup. This elevator is outside of security and only for employee use so we come up the elevator and then come into the terminal just outside security and then proceed through the normal security screening. Last time I was there we noticed that next to this elevator there is a door that goes into the back of the Starbucks in the terminal. We asked someone and they said that is the employee entrance for Starbucks. So these employees come up the elevator and then go into Starbucks and work all day without going through security. There is no reason that one of them could not bring a gun or a bomb into work with them and then pass it to an accomplice, who went through security clean, in a bag with a muffin purchased at Starbucks. I'm sure there are many other examples of this around the country.

The purpose of the TSA is to put on a big show for the flying public in order to make them feel safer. I'm convinced that is all they care about, not whether or not they really are safer just as long as they feel safer. It seems to work because every time I see some story about long security lines they interview people in line and they all say things like, "I'm OK with it since it is for our safety". Meanwhile I am getting my bags searched and can't even carry a screwdriver in my bag even though I have been through multiple FBI background checks to get my job and then to keep it after 9/11, all while Achmed is going into Starbucks with anything he wants to bring from home. The most complicated thing that the next Mohammed Atta has to do is ensure that his accomplice get hired at Starbucks in Tampa. He can then give him all the supplies he will need and then head through security cleanly and then go buy a muffin in a brown paper bag from his friend. Any of the TSA folks would never notice since they would be too busy making 80 year old WWII amputees take off there prosthetic legs to look for explosives.

Well, enough ranting I guess. I'm just tired of being part of a system that is such a joke.

After 9/11 the Air Marhsals practically cleaned all the good agents from the Border Patrol. We were left with hardly anybody to train new agents. Fortunately the Air Marhsals took a lot of idiots from the patrol as well. The Air Marshals, at least form the Border Patrol recieved former Marines, Navy Seals and Rangers. There are some really, really bad mamma jammas that are the terrorists worst nightmare in the AM. Sadly there are some people that are just the opposite.

A friend of mine who retunred to the Patrol from the AM told me about an AM we both know form the patrol. The guy would sleep, hit on stewardesses and female passengers. Apparently he hypnotized some chick and he couldn't wake her up. She didn't wake up until the plane touched ground. Needless to say the guy got fired.

This is a great post. I have flown recently. I felt the airport security was insufficient to protect Americans. I have stated earlier on this thread that security merely goes through the motions in order to comfort nervous passengers-lulling them into a false sense of security. However, I disagaree on one point, I do believe terrorists are interested in blowing American planes out of the sky. Terrorists want to create ...terror. Certainly, the shoe bomber intended to bring an individual airplane down. If one or more American planes is blown up-killing all passengers, the flying public would certainly be terrified. In fact,many people might stop flying, and this would certainly affect the airline industry and the economy. President Bush would be blamed and might lose the election. I must say, I believe President Bush has made a big mistake in keeping Mineta-who by all reports is more interested in not offending Muslims then in national security. Also, President Bush has not secured our borders because of political concerns(hispanic vote). That being said, I will vote for President Bush because Kerry would be worse. He would follow Clinton style security policies, and we would be further endgangered. We must stop the terrorists by implementing security-El Al style. These people want to kill us-perhaps one plane at a time:let's make it as difficult as possible by having proper security.

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