Posted on 08/17/2006 8:08:11 AM PDT by shhrubbery!
(CBS4) BOSTON Criminal charges could be filed Thursday against a Vermont woman who caused a disturbance aboard a London-to-Virginia jet that was diverted to Logan Airport.
59-year-old Catherine Mayo is being held by federal authorities in Boston.
Investigators say she was a claustrophobic passenger who became upset and interfered with the flight crew on United Airlines flight 923 Wednesday morning. The pilot declared an in-flight emergency and landed the plane at Logan. The Boeing 767 was escorted by two F-15 jets based out of Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod.
Passengers say Mayo paced the aisles and peppered her incoherent mutterings with the word "Pakistan." They said two plainclothes men on board and flight attendants tackled the woman. She was handcuffed while the flight was diverted.
After a day filled with conflicting reports about what she was carrying, an FBI spokeswoman confirmed Mayo had a screwdriver, lighters and matches when she was subdued...
(Excerpt) Read more at cbs4boston.com ...
Like a geodome?
I think everyone pretty much already believes she was taken by Frogs, or something else quite foreign...
Thanks, first I've seen that.
The Guardian article referenced earlier was the only one I'd seen with the info that her trip hadn't originated in London. That article stated Dubai as starting point, I believe.
But in light of today's info, it makes sense she was coming from Pakistan.
Looks like she waited until the last leg of the trip --when she was on an American carrier (United)-- to have her little "panic attack."
I knew the snow job was in place.
Met up with any baby bottle bombers there by any chance?
I don't know if opening the cockpit door is a particularly good idea.
This article has another interesting piece of info:
Flight attendants summoned the captain, who spoke to Mayo. During the conversation, she made reference to there being six steps to building some unspecified thing.
She made reference to being with people associated with two words. She stated that she could not say what the two words were because the last time that she had said the two words she had been kicked off of a flight in the United Arab Emirates, according to the affidavit.
The captain and purser both believed that she was referring to al-Qaida, Choldin wrote.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14375133/page/2/
It appears that she may post under a couple of screen names:
http://www.pakistanidefenceforum.com/lofiversion/index.php/t8228.html
http://www.pakistanidefenceforum.com/lofiversion/index.php/t15245.html
"See kaboom's find in post 48 above. In late 2002 Mayo claimed to have had a Pakistani lover named Junaid."
And to have a Muslim prayer rug and a compass pointed toward Mecca in her hotel room.
I think we can safely identify yesterday's incident as Muslim terrorism, although of an ineffectual kind.
About 35 minutes later, when she tried to go to the bathroom, the flight attendants directed her to a different lavatory. Instead, she pulled down her pants and urinated on the floor, Choldin wrote in the affidavit, which was based on his interviews and those of other federal officials.
At that point, the captain ordered her restrained. Two male passengers helped a flight attendant tackle Mayo and restrain her in plastic cuffs. She remained seated in the galley area of plane until the flight landed, according to the affidavit.
Tackled with her pants down midstream?
Where was the boyfriend ?
Add that to the banned items she DID have in her handbag.
Subtract yesterday's denials of both. Then, add the denials of the denials back in.
What the heck is going on?
LOL!! When peeing on the floor sounds like a good idea you know you have gone around the bend and there ain't no coming back.
It would appear that everything in the first report that was later retracted is indeed true.
Good question. Was he on that flight? Was he an accomlice? She had a few lighters -- who was she going to distribute them to? Was she a smoker? We'll have to wait for more info I guess.
Real class
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,208943,00.html
She actually did pee on the floor in front of everyone! Eat snit and bark at the moon!
I'm highlighting the glaring fact that the FBI confirmed she was indeed carrying banned items in her bag.That's the government admitting she was more of a problem than just claustrophic. Yesterday several FReepers swore that we could expect only lies and coverup from the government. They were wrong, as I predicted they would be. I said we would begin to learn more when they were ready to make a statement and release the passengers.
Elsewhere in the story it says passengers have described what they witnessed or were involved in.Likewise I had urged us not to worry about information not being forthcoming...that the passengers would talk and we would learn a lot more. This, too, is fulfilled.
To anyone who thinks I used the word paranoia to point to them, think again...I only used it because there were some who swore that we would never know what really happened and would get only lies and coverup. One extreme example among many was the poster who said soon we will be told it wasn't a female who did this, after being told she was and then wasn't carrying banned items. I called him or her on that and said no we won't be told that, if it is clearly true she was female.
Since I used the term paranoia, I have seen it flung out as a sarcastic epithet as though everyone with questions and concerns about this event is accusing me (while not naming me) of accusing them of paranoia.
An unfair shame, because I too have questions and concerns I hope will be addressed about this incident.
But I was shocked by the stated assumption that the government had and would lie about and cover up everything, and by the illogic in overlooking the fact that passengers were witnesses and even participants in some cases, and would definitely talk.
Initial reports said that it was 2-3 people who were in some kind of confrontation with the flight crew. Could he have been one of those?
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