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Woman faces charges in flight scare (actually confirms much of the early reports)
AP, via MLive.com ^ | 8/17/06 | MELISSA TRUJILLO

Posted on 08/17/2006 11:36:12 AM PDT by Diddle E. Squat

BOSTON (AP) — A woman on a trans-Atlantic flight diverted to Boston for security concerns passed several notes to crew members, urinated on the cabin floor and made comments the crew believed were references to al-Qaida and the Sept. 11 attacks, according to an affidavit filed Thursday.

Catherine C. Mayo, 59, of Braintree, Vt., was to appear in federal court later Thursday on a charge of interfering with a flight crew after disrupting United 923 as it flew from London to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.

The flight, with 182 passengers and 12 crew members, landed safely with the escort of two F-15s after the pilot declared an emergency on board.

The scare came just a week after London authorities said they foiled a terror plot to blow up trans-Atlantic flights. Federal officials quickly determined there were no indications of terrorism ties.

According to an affidavit by FBI Special Agent Daniel Choldin filed in U.S. District Court in Boston, flight attendants noticed Mayo about 90 minutes into the flight because she was pushing against the aircraft bulkhead. When the attendant told her to return to her seat, Mayo said she wanted to speak to an air marshal and made statements about knowing that people wanted to see what was in her bag.

FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz confirmed Thursday that authorities found a screwdriver and an unspecified number of cigarette lighters in her bag, items which are banned under new security regulations. Marcinkiewicz also confirmed that matches were found Mayo's bag.

She also had a bottle of water, which did not appear to be supplied by the flight crew. It wasn't clear how the items made it through airport security.

Since a foiled terror plot surfaced in London last week, airports have tightened security in both the United Kingdom and the U.S. Liquids and gels have been banned from carry-on luggage, and even tighter restrictions are in place in Britain. The terror plot apparently involved using such liquids to make and detonate bombs aboard planes.

Later during the flight, according to the affidavit, Mayo asked a flight attendant: "Is this a training flight for United Flight 93?" The flight attendant didn't know if she made a mistake because the flight was actually Flight 923, or if she was referring to Flight 93, the hijacked plane that crashed in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11.

During that time, she was "biting her fingers, rubbing her feet and in a constant state of movement. She appeared very agitated," the affidavit said.

She wrote in a note and said to flight attendants that she had been in a country illegally, and later said she had photographs of Pakistan.

"She stated that the photographs would be awful, and she indicated that they related to the people that she had been with in the mountains of Pakistan," the affidavit said.

Her U.S. passport indicated that on Aug. 15 she had left Pakistan and entered the United Kingdom, according to the affidavit. As many as 17 people have been arrested in Pakistan in connection with the London terror plot.

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.

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.

The outburst on the flight — just a week after London authorities said they foiled a terror plot to blow up trans-Atlantic flights — prompted a massive security scare.

Gov. Mitt Romney said the woman was claustrophobic and became so upset she had to be restrained, and passengers said Mayo appeared to have emotional problems.

"She was in a frenzy," passenger Martin Drinkwater of London told The Boston Globe. "She then pulled her trousers and knickers down and squatted on the floor."

Antony Nash, 31, of San Diego, said he grew nervous watching the muttering woman seated near him, as she paced and made too many trips to the bathroom. The pilot did not make a general announcement to passengers of what was happening.

"I noticed F-15s next to the plane. I said, 'Oh my God.' And then we saw the emergency vehicles," Nash said.

Terror scares garner particular attention in Boston because of Logan's history. Members of al-Qaida hijacked two planes from Logan on Sept. 11, 2001, and flew them into the World Trade Center towers in New York.

Logan airport also was where an American Airlines Paris-Miami flight was diverted in 2001 when Richard Reid, the so-called shoe bomber, tried to blow up the plane. He was thwarted by attendants and passengers after he tried to light a fuse leading to the concealed plastic explosives in his sneakers. He is now serving a life prison sentence.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Front Page News; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 2006; 200608; 20060815; 20060816; airlinesecurity; bottle; bottlebombs; braintree; catherinemayo; cigarettelighters; codeyellow; flight923; flight93; lighters; logan; matches; mayo; mittromney; pakistan; screwdriver; sixsteps; transatlanticplot; united923; unitedflight923; unitedflight93; vermont; ytranstlanticplot
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To: null and void

Did you see the pics someone posted last week here of Allah and his minions/angels?

I thought the snake like lower legs/feet of the angels was very creepy as was allah.

Reminded me of Lucifer and his crew. (trying to copy Jesus as usual)


81 posted on 08/17/2006 12:59:39 PM PDT by Global2010 (Show me da paw Ya'll)
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To: sheana

Oh. (whoops I missed it)


82 posted on 08/17/2006 1:01:26 PM PDT by Global2010 (Show me da paw Ya'll)
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To: Diddle E. Squat
"I noticed F-15s next to the plane. I said, 'Oh my God.' And then we saw the emergency vehicles," Nash said.

How did they get the emergency vehicles up there?

83 posted on 08/17/2006 1:02:29 PM PDT by Larry Lucido
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To: iceskater
Where did he get the idea that she was claustrophobic? None of that description sounds like claustrophobia to me.

Ditto that. Why would a claustrophobic spend half the flight holed up in those tiny airplane lavatories?

84 posted on 08/17/2006 1:06:40 PM PDT by Ditto
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To: Larry Lucido

LOL Sprinters with wings.

I just watched Flight 93 and boy I would not recommend that movie prior to a flight esp. if one has tendencies towards mental health issues.


85 posted on 08/17/2006 1:07:37 PM PDT by Global2010 (Show me da paw Ya'll)
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To: Ditto

The Airline industry hires their psycho. analyzers from the same place they get their TNA's.


86 posted on 08/17/2006 1:09:51 PM PDT by Global2010 (Show me da paw Ya'll)
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To: Global2010

I predict this thread will go over 100 posts.


87 posted on 08/17/2006 1:10:45 PM PDT by Global2010 (Show me da paw Ya'll)
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To: Diddle E. Squat

disgusting scenario.


88 posted on 08/17/2006 1:12:33 PM PDT by Ciexyz (Leaning on the everlasting arms.)
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To: Larry Lucido

Trebuchet?


89 posted on 08/17/2006 1:16:01 PM PDT by Sloth ('It Takes A Village' is problematic when you're raising your child in Sodom.)
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To: ARealMothersSonForever
After spending 6 years in Pakistan. Nope, nothing to see here whatsoever. "Cathy Mayo is an American journalist based in Pakistan"

Somebody went native?

90 posted on 08/17/2006 1:21:01 PM PDT by antiRepublicrat
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To: sheana
" a 40 ft sailboat,"
I found the true extreme limits of my phobia on a 30 footer! Had to help my Dad do something on the little 4-banger. L squoze into that tiny space and could barely move. Got out really quickly! I'd rather go up on the bosun's chair on a windy day, than go back in that hole!
91 posted on 08/17/2006 1:24:00 PM PDT by Dr. Bogus Pachysandra ("Don't touch that thing")
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To: vladimir998

I think that's where someone should have tackled her . . . and made sure she landed in the puddle.


92 posted on 08/17/2006 1:28:29 PM PDT by Xenalyte ("Snakes on a Plane" will win best movie next year.)
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To: Global2010

You know that big wall that separates coach from first class? That's the bulkhead. It's great to sit in a bulkhead row - there's almost always more leg room.


93 posted on 08/17/2006 1:29:54 PM PDT by Xenalyte ("Snakes on a Plane" will win best movie next year.)
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To: Ditto

Back in 1997, while having a nasty reaction to a sulfa drug, I spent 80% of a Houston-to-Cancun flight in the lavatory - and 80% of my vacation in the hotel tub.


94 posted on 08/17/2006 1:32:23 PM PDT by Xenalyte ("Snakes on a Plane" will win best movie next year.)
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To: Global2010
I looked up a recipe for Cassoulet and have gotten pretty good at it. It is delicious. They did not confiscate my wine; I believe you are allowed 5-6 bottles.
My wife is Parisian and we usually bring back a suitcase full of delicacies which are hard or impossible (not so much with Internet sales now) to find here.

I remember coming back across the Mojave desert into Calif a few years back and had an orange in my ice chest, the entry cop would not let me bring fruit into Calif so he confiscated it. It was 110 degrees and the orange was about 35, I notice he was peeling it as I pulled away but I wouldn't blame him.
95 posted on 08/17/2006 1:38:43 PM PDT by SF Republican
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To: bcsco; Lijahsbubbe; Alouette; Yehuda; dennisw
Hmmm, a 59 YO grandmother with a Pakistani boyfriend. This all reads like she was recruited by her pal, and then drugged before the flight to remove any second thoughts/inhibitions about carrying out her plot. Only she became so uninhibited that she urinated on the cabin floor.

Soooo.... how long before Mother Sheehan gets herself a Muslim boytoy? Now wouldn't that be easy money... he could just skip the brainwashing step.

96 posted on 08/17/2006 1:59:12 PM PDT by Thinkin' Gal (As it was in the days of NO...)
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To: ARealMothersSonForever
... just a kooky leftist journalist who freaked out...

Perhaps she finally confronted THE TRUTH.

Any leftist facing reality is at risk of mental damage and/or emotional upheaval.

97 posted on 08/17/2006 1:59:15 PM PDT by TaxRelief (Wal-Mart: Keeping my family on-budget since 1993.)
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To: Sloth

Had to look it up, but, LOL!


98 posted on 08/17/2006 2:00:11 PM PDT by Larry Lucido
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To: weegee; AppyPappy; Diddle E. Squat

Maybe she's not nuts. Maybe she wanted to get arrested so she could safely pass on some info about something she happened upon.... Maybe she is positioning herself for protective custody.


99 posted on 08/17/2006 2:04:43 PM PDT by TaxRelief (Wal-Mart: Keeping my family on-budget since 1993.)
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To: Diddle E. Squat

OBTW, she is a 59-year old white native-born American grandma. Aren't the simpletons that scream "racially profiling is all we need to do" always saying we are wasting time searching white grandmothers?


100 posted on 08/17/2006 2:14:46 PM PDT by Diddle E. Squat
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