LAX Terminal Evacuated Due To "Suspicious Comment"
20 Southwest Airlines and 2 U.S. Airways flights were delayed after a LAX terminal was evacuated for two hours due to a "suspicious comment" made by a passenger on SWA Flight 1182 from El Paso. We were unable to find out what exactly the "suspicious comment" was, but UPI suggests that it had something to do with explosives in his luggage. The LAPD bomb squad was called, but no explosives were found.
The passenger has been taken into custody, but the whole thing makes us wonder what the comment was. Why can't we hear it? Is it like the "The Funniest Joke in the World?" Once we find it and post it, will they have to evacuate the building where you work because you read it?
LAX Passenger Detained, Flights Delayed After 'Suspicious Comment' [KNBC]
(Photo:JohnKit)
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Comments:
Oh for Christ's sake...
"Oh man, that chili cheese dog I bought from the street vendor's not sitting too well... I think I need to drop a bomb in bathroom..brb."
I would be much more worried about my flight being shot down by some failed military exercise like what happened to TWA Flight 800.
Well, they didn't even call it a threatening comment, so it must be something very trivial but, "OMG, we must check out every possibility, just to be safe."
I remember years ago being warned (many moons before 911) against yelling a greeting to your friend named Jack in an airport. i.e. Hi, Jack!
Not to mention that the article does not explicitly state what this dope said. I would HOPE that if someone made a threatening statement like, oh, I don't know, There's a bomb in my suitcase! HAR HAR!, that the airport would take that kinda seriously.
@laserjobs: I hope you're joking...
Hmmm.... so a suspicious comment is all it takes to be detained and searched. Red scare, anyone? We'll find all those pinko, I mean terrorist &$*#*@!
(Yeah I know, this was in a 'secure' zone, that is an airport. But it's the proverbial camel's nose.)
Sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't be easier to just get chipped, get monitored, and submit. Can I at least then get on the plane in less than 2 hours assuming my papers have the proper stamp from the motherland? Maybe that's the idea...
"Ayer compré la bomba, y está en mi equipaje." Unfortunately in Spanish the same word can be used for "bomb" as for "pump," and so these little mixups are bound to occur. (It was an El Paso to LAX flight, so at there's there's a good possibility that it was uttered in Spanish.)
@sir_eccles: Nope, not kidding at all. Do your research, some of the top US reporters did and lost their jobs over it.
I actually thought of that because I'm diabetic and wear a small paper size insulin pump.
I speak sufficient conversational Spanish - but have practiced explaining to make sure the word "bomba" while pointing to this little device is understood within the context of my sentence.. (Soy diabetico y uso una bomba de insulina...)
Maybe they don't want to release the exact phrase because they're afraid people in airports will start talking about it and the whole incident will happen again.
@jamesdenver: Holy Shit! You can make a bomb out of insulin?!? That must be the mythical >3oz bomb the TSA keeps claiming is real.
"BOMB" is now a universal word. In any place, anywhere in the world, it would probably get you detained and searched.
Maybe he said what that guy said in the Radiohead video and they're afraid we'll all lay down.
Here's the real question we should be asking: Is the security at airports so vulnerable that we have to shut everything down because a customer jokes about explosives? Do they really lack a practical means of mitigating the threat?
maybe they are trying to make up for the fact that they can't find bombs when they are looking for them?
@FLConsumer: That has to be it. That or "If I eat one more crappy in flight meal i'm gonna explode!"
"I have the movie in my suitcase, but it was a real BOMB at the box office!"
I'm sure this is an overreaction and I agree with everyone but to play devil's advocate... everytime something bad happens, you hear "WHY DIDN'T THEY DO SOMETHING TO PREVENT THIS TRAGEDY?!?!"
You're damned if you do and damned if you don't.
"This new Asus Eee is DUH BOMB!"
@laserjobs: ...or the confirmed U.S. kill, IR655. Which resulted in numerous commendations and medals.
@FLConsumer: What's stopping two passengers from conjoining said 3oz liquid together, therefore having 6oz?
maybe he said there was a BONG in his luggage.
I love it! The same US gov't that failed to discover the 9/11 plot and brought us the disaster that was the Rumsfeld Strategy (not to mention the Katrina relief response), was somehow able to pull off a coverup of the magnitude you suggest.
Isn't funny that conspiracies seem to be the only thing the gov't can get consistently correct?
At least that's what the little green man sitting on my shoulder told me to write.
@laserjobs: yea, the same people responsible for having Kennedy assassinated and filming the fake moon landing films.
@FredTheGreat: in flight meals?
@jamesdenver: Keep in mind the average IQ of TSA agents. You might want to KIS(for the)S, and just refer to the pump as "insulin".
"Medical Device" might also be a useful magic phrase. As in, "O hai, I can't remove this and put it in the little tray of electronic gadgets because it's a Medical Device."
yeah i don't bring attention to it as it usually doesn't set off the the security alarm. But at LAX at Christmas it DID set it off - and I said exactly that when he ask to tray it - and he said "Ok sounds good" without a further glance.
hit or miss...
"Did you see my new luggage? That shit is the bomb!"
Glad to see the reliability of the X-ray screening process. To paraphrase Seinfeld "What is that, some sort of bowling ball candle...keep it moving...a hairdryer with scope...ok.
I've been waiting for a spot to use my 2nd favorite scene ever.
@Televiper: Sadly...if you have to ask, you probably already know the question.
@Moosehawk: or 3 or 4 terrorists coming on the plane with 3oz each. You know, 'cause terrorists/hijackers always work alone on these flights. I've not spent a lot of time thinking it over, but there's got to be a decent way to create an explosive which uses urine. Urea's quite an "active" compound. Then again, there's probably enough other "interesting" substances which can be found inside the cabin that could also be useful for explosive/inflammable purposes.
@ironchef: You saw Tommy Chong at the airport?
Seriously, they were watching The Naked Gun 2 1/2: "...Nobody runs, just walk. Single file. That's it. Now if we just stay calm, no one's gonna be harmed by the huge bomb that's gonna explode any minute."
One time, at band camp, they called the bomb squad in because someone overheard someone say "explosive diarrhea".
@bbbici: That *IS* an urgent situation there! 'though the proper response is a hazmat crew, not bomb squad.
The 3oz bottle thing is a placebo. My chemistry skills can best be described as "bucket/field expedient" and even I can think of several ways to smuggle explosives aboard in 3oz lots. Two of them wouldn't even make a bomb sniffing dog react.
The amount of time it takes us to find out what the comment was is probably inversely proportional to its investigative value.
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