Posted on 01/18/2004 8:28:59 AM PST by OXENinFLA
Arrest over bomb joke on plane
From correspondents in New York January 17, 2004
A HOLIDAYING French student was in a New York jail here awaiting a court appearance following his arrest over an aircraft bomb "joke".
He left the plane at New York's Kennedy Airport after allegedly joking that he had put a bomb in the plane's toilet, court sources said.
Frank Moulet, 27, was in custody in a floating detention centre called "The Boat" in Long Island Sound off the borough of The Bronx pending charges of making a "false scare".
His girlfriend, arrested with him after they arrived on an American Airlines flight from Santo Domingo, was put on another plane and sent back to France.
Police were called to the plane after a cabin attendant reported that Moulet raised his fist in the air as the plane was landing and shouted, "Oh sh*t, I guess the bomb I planted in the toilet didn't go off".
He faces up to four years in prison on the charge.
US immigration officials have said they are also interested in questioning him.
But suggesting that the airlines deserve to go under for attempting to find weapons borne by passengers, and that the country should want to live without air travel as a way of life and as a loss to the economy, is silly as a goal and as a security decision. It isn't as bad as they say, and the exaggerations of the easily over-hassled shouldn't go unanswered by a dose of perspective.
True enough. The airlines don't really "deserve" anything one way or the other. The system in place is what it is, and we'll all see the long-term consequences (good or bad). As a whole, the flying public will make an intelligent decision regarding flight, and demand will end up at a level of appropriate to the service/price offering. I'm not sure anyone knows what that level of demand is likely to be.
From Jan 1974 until June 1977 I took 132 hours after 5:30 in the evening while working 45-60 hours a week and had a 3.25 average. You figure out if I was full time or not.
No, going out of one's way would mean driving for thousands of miles because one doesn't like to take off one's shoes for one's own or other's benefit.
Exactly. Hence a biometric database would greatly ease the existing inconvenience of flying. Let those who choose not to be included in the database stand in line and remove their shoes and show their plastic ID cards, while those who made an intelligent decision regarding an appropriate level of service will be ushered right to their seats.
So, how many shoe-bombers have they found?
Airport "security" is a placebo.
The real threat to commercial airline traffic is shoulder-fired missiles.
A sour-pussed high school dropout TSA employee feeling your crotch is not going to stop one.
We don't actually know what the real threat that works will be... It will be whatever idea we don't make impractical through the measures we can control.
A sour-pussed high school dropout TSA employee feeling your crotch is not going to stop one.
For the record, the TSA employees I encountered on my four flights this week were pleasant and alert. As were the flight attendents and other aiport personnel. Another exaggeration to try to invent a point.
~AND~ not one felt my crotch or even probably, desired to....
Normal human beings aren't as stupid as this. Test your theory -- go to a movie theater and yell "All of infidels will die while wearing sausages around your body." Or wait till a national politician shows up in your city for their 2004 campaign and yell -- "Shoot him! Shoot him now" through a walkie-talkie. Some jokes are better left unsaid.
I'm sure VISA, MasterCard, and American Express are already working on it.
I've read that Reid's mistake was omitting the blasting cap needed to detonate the explosive. The man was apparently a dim bulb, and his plan was flawed and untested, if indeed it was to blow up an aircraft.
However, now we all remove our shoes as we go through the security line, and feel the further alienation from our institutions and our countrymen -- we each are now terror suspects in our own home -- perhaps this was Reid's goal...
This alienation results in a few rash individuals blurting out stupid jokes, some avoiding the aggravating situation (sour grapes, or claim of special privilege), most complying with the new idiocies of the day, and ironically, some plotting a way to effectively retaliate against perceived oppression. It's a new road rage.
I know exactly how you feel. Just the other day I wasn't allowed enter my own bank while wearing a mask!
Normal human beings don't joke about planting a bomb on an airplane.
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