Posted on 12/27/2001 6:15:18 AM PST by Elkiejg
ARMED police have boarded a Sydney-bound United Airlines flight in London and forced three passengers off the plane.
United Airlines are refusing to comment on the incident, with a spokesman for the airline in the UK confirming only that the flight from Heathrow to Sydney via San Francisco had been delayed.
But British police have confirmed armed police boarded the plane and removed three passengers.
Flight UA 931, from London to Sydney via San Francisco left Heathrow terminal as scheduled at about 2pm (GMT) on Monday afternoon (0100 AEDT Tuesday).
According to a teenage passenger, Jack Richardson from Manly in Sydney's northern beaches, the plane stopped on the runway and the pilot advised of mechanical problems over the aircraft's public address system.
"The pilot comes on and says he's not at liberty to tell us exactly what happened," he told ABC Radio.
"But the fact is a man from first class, a man from business class and a man from economy class had all been arrested and escorted off the plane."
Mr Richardson said the plane returned to the terminal, where armed police boarded it and escorted the passengers away.
He said about 100 remaining passengers were told to disembark and were subject to an extensive body and luggage search.
The flight eventually took off four hours behind schedule, Mr Richardson said.
A spokeswoman from the Metropolitan Police Service in London said the airline had sought the assistance of police to remove three passengers from the flight.
"At about 3.15pm (GMT) on Monday (0215 AEDT Tuesday), three passengers on a flight from London Heathrow to San Francisco were asked to leave the plane by police at the request of the airline company," she said.
"No offences were discovered, no arrests were made and there was no further action taken."
The basis on which the airline had sought the passengers' removal was a matter for United Airlines to decide whether to reveal, the police spokeswoman said.
A spokeswoman for United Airlines in the UK, Ruth Hornsby, confirmed the flight had been delayed but declined to provide further details.
"United Airlines' main priority is the safety and security of its passengers and staff," she told AAP from London.
The airline's Australian spokesman, Ian Nicholas, also declined to provide further details of the incident, saying it was a police matter.
This report appears on news.com.au.
Many of us kept an eye on the passengers who got special meals or didn't eat the portions with pork.
The Brits have always been class concious. ;-)
The airlines are deserving of the contempt of the American people.
LOL, yeah and the vegetarians weren't real thrilled either.
If they were Muslims, give us the truth.
The disconnect is now getting a little too much. No arrests made?? Then where are the three "removees"?
The airline industry is self destructing. And the "FEAR LEVEL" of people is loathsome.
Get a set boys - "they" can't protect you all the time. And hand-wringing and gibbering don't help.
prambo
Congressman Billybob
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United Airlines still has no explanation for delayed flight SYDNEY, Dec 27 AAP|Published: Thursday December 27, 8:52 PM
Passengers on a Sydney-bound flight delayed for four hours while three men were removed by police deserve an explanation from the airline, an Australian on the flight said today.
United Airlines was today still unable to say why it asked police at London's Heathrow Airport to remove the passengers or why the flight was delayed for more than four hours while security checks were carried out.
The pilot told passengers the men were not sitting together but were taken from first, business and economy class.
The flight was delayed for four hours after armed police boarded it to remove the three, British police confirmed today.
Jack Richardson, 17, from Manly on Sydney's northern beaches who was on the plane, said passengers should have been given a reason for the raid.
Passengers assumed it was terrorism-related, especially when a man carrying explosives in his shoes was found on a transatlantic flight the previous day.
"It would have been good if they (United Airlines) just told us and it would have stopped the speculation," Mr Richardson told AAP.
"I definitely did think it was (related to) terrorism.
Flight UA 931, from London to Sydney via San Francisco, left Heathrow terminal as scheduled at about 2pm (GMT) on Monday afternoon (0100 AEDT Tuesday).
But according to Mr Richardson, the plane stopped on the runway and the pilot advised of mechanical problems.
"The pilot came on (the PA) and said that he had a few mechanical problems and that we'd have to turn back and go to the gate," he said.
"We sat for about half an hour and then he comes on again and says that there's been a problem on-board and that three people have been escorted off."
He said the pilot then told more than 100 remaining passengers they would all have to leave the plane and take all baggage with them to be searched.
Each passenger was scanned through a metal detector and all hand luggage was thoroughly searched by security personnel.
"Even if you had to go to the toilet whilst you were off the plane, you had to get escorted," he said.
"They checked your shoes and patted everyone down thoroughly and there was a sniffer dog waiting. Whilst we were off, they said the whole plane had to be searched and sniffer-dogged."
With the images of the devastating terrorist attacks on the US still fresh in people's minds, the sight of armed personnel was unsettling.
"When we were actually leaving the plane to be searched there were men throughout the plane with semi-automatics just standing there at the ready, if you will... a bit unnerving to say the least," Mr Richardson said,
He said later the pilot said "he's not at liberty to tell us exactly what happened.... but the fact is a man from first class, a man from business class and a man from economy class had all been arrested and escorted off the plane."
The flight eventually took off, almost four-and-a-half hours behind schedule, Mr Richardson said.
A spokeswoman from the Metropolitan Police Service in London said the airline had sought the assistance of police to remove three passengers from the flight.
"At about 3.15pm (GMT) on Monday (0215 AEDT Tuesday), three passengers on a flight from London Heathrow to San Francisco were asked to leave the plane by police at the request of the airline company," she told AAP.
"No offences were discovered, no arrests were made and there was no further action taken."
The basis on which the airline had sought the passengers' removal was a matter for United Airlines to decide whether to reveal, the police spokeswoman said.
A spokeswoman for United Airlines in the UK, Ruth Hornsby, confirmed the flight had been delayed but declined to provide further details.
The airline's public affairs head, Sussana Lehary, from Chicago in the US, told AAP the matter was still being investigated and that details of the incident had not been provided yet by its London administration.
By Anthony Stavrinos
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