ozstamps

Typical USA security paranoia it seems to me.

Heck if this is what happens if Bob Smith doodles his name on a barf bag in the loo, heaven help us if Warren Travis Charlesworth did the same with his initials.

Strangest and dumbest thing is :

1. They concede barf bag was NOT there before passengers boarding.

2. No passengers or crew were asked for handwriting samples as they deplaned.

3. Same pax will all board tomorrow.

Durrrhhh. Anyone else see what is wrong with this picture?

ozstamps

Passengers weren't told of threat

July 27, 2004

NONE of the passengers aboard United Airlines Flight 840 knew of the bomb threat against the aircraft until they reached the terminal in Sydney tonight.

The first news they heard came when they phoned relatives from mobile phones once safely inside the terminal.

The 246 passengers from the Los Angeles-bound flight emerged from their ordeal shortly after 9pm (AEST) having been given the all clear from authorities.

A bomb threat, now deemed by police to be a hoax, had caused their flight to return to Sydney 90 minutes into its trip.

The pilot aborted the flight and told Sydney Airport authorities of the emergency after the note, written on a sick bag, was found on the plane.

etc

http://news.com.au/common/story_page...5E1702,00.html

Interveiwed pax said they were held on the ground for 20 mins after landing. Curious if there was a feeling a bomb was on board?

FWAAA

What idiots. Allowing hysteria to rule the day.

On a different note, only 246 pax on a 747? I realize it's winter down under, but it's nice here in LA. Why isn't the plane packed with Aussie tourists headed to California for a holiday?

UNITED959

Weird that this hasn't hit the homepage of CNN.com.

Although it could be getting the same treatment as Jeff Smith (aka The Frugal Gourmet) when he passed--it showed up about 3 days later.

BDLORD

Could it be that no convicted pedophiles were on board

rufus102

You want to spend 14 hours in a plane thinking "what if....."???

I don't. Ask the passengers if they wanted to stay on the plane even with the vagueness of the 'threat'.

Hysteria maybe - but these times call for caution. Anything less would be reckless.

unagi1

Maybe those FTers of us named BOB ought to think twice before signing in the Hemispheres Mag...

UScolorado1k

I was just thinking about that. From now forward whenever I'm on a plane, my name will be Frank.

ooops, now TSA will nab me as my name, BP and id don't match.

DaveSF

Hmm. In the Hemispheres Sign-In Game thread, didn't someone seriously suggest writing on the air sickness bag instead? ...on the theory that since they are used/changed less often than Hemispheres (one hopes!), there'd be a better chance for another FTer to see it? Uh oh...does anyone know a Bob here?

Or alternatively, as others have hinted, writing "B.O.B." on the barf bag could have been a reference to the quality of the Buy on Board meals? (My one experience with BOB, a chicken salad, was actually pretty tasty.)

Droneklax

BOB is also the code of the Bora-Bora airport.

I think this is a bit over the top.

bdschobel

Well, I think that this incident is way way over the top. Now even the Australians, my last hope for intelligent humans, are acting like morons -- and not even at the direction of the Evil Empire (oops, I meant the beloved United States of America, sorry about that). If seeing a common name written on a barf bag is enough to ground a 747-400 and throw a major airport into red alert, then we are all idiots. It's amazing that we -- well, our ancestors, anyway -- invented airplanes in the first place!

Well, as rufus102 says, "These times call for caution." Yeah, be careful not to trip over any idiots.

Bruce

FWAAA

Agreed. rufus102 calls it "caution." I call it LUNACY.

Many colleges stopped publicizing phoned-in bomb threats (common during finals weeks) many years ago. Guess what happened? Whaddayaknow, fewer bomb threats.

If bomb threats can cause this much disruption in the real world - guess what? Terrorists won't have to bomb any airplanes, they'll just "phone it in." Shame on the simple-minded authorities who play along with terrorists.

Arthurrs

From www.acronymfinder.com:

BOB Best Of Breed (computer industry, also dog & cat shows)
BOB Babe On Back (of motorcycle)
BOB Baby On Board
BOB Back of Book (answers in textbook exercises)
BOB Back-Of-Book (magazine publishing)
BOB Bail Out Bottle (emergency air supply)
BOB Band of Brothers
BOB Bank of Baroda
BoB Bank of Beirut
BoB Bank of Bermuda
BoB Bank of Butterfield (Bermuda)
BOB Bank One Ballpark (Arizona Diamondbacks)
BOB Basketball Owl Band (Rice University)
BOB Battery Operated Boyfriend
BOB Battle of Britain (air battle between Allied and Axis powers over the English Channel in WWII)
BOB Beast of Burden
BOB Beatniks On Bongos
BOB Beginning Of Business
BOB Bellaire Office Building
BOB Bend Over Buddy
BOB Berner Oberland Bahn (Swiss railway company)
BOB Best of the Best
BOB Bewust Onbeschonken Bestuurder (Dutch: Conscious Non-Drunk Driver)
BOB Big O' Blaster (gaming)
BOB Big Orange Ball (slang for the sun)
BOB Blitter Object
BOB Bolivian Boliviano (ISO currency code)
BOB Bombs Over Baghdad (band)
BOB Bombs Over Baghdad (Outkast song)
BOB Book of Business
BOB Bora Bora (Airport Code)
BOB Born on Board
BOB Bottom of the Barrel
BOB Bottom-of-Basket
BOB Boy On Bike
BOB Brains on Board (robot)
BOB Brains Over Brawns
BOB Break-Out Box
BOB Bring On Bottle
BOB Bring Own Booze
BoB Brotherhood of Britannia (gaming)
BOB Bug Out Bag
BOB Bunch of Believers (Christian band)
BOB Bunch of Believers (Ska Group)
BOB Bunch of Bullstuff (polite form)
BOB Bureau Of Budget
BOB Buy on Board (cruise ship business)
BOB Robert

Strange that "bomb on board" is not listed here. Perhaps they need to add an entry? I'm glad my name is Arthur!

studentff

I agree that once it has been identified as a "threat" that thinking "what if" is unacceptable and caution is the rule.

My question is about the sanity of the persons who identified a barf-bag with "BOB" written on it as a "threat" (again assuming nothing else weird happend other than this bag). The person reporting the bag and (probably) the FAs that escalated it to the cockpit are the ones I'm questioning. By the time it got to the point of an FA telling the cockpit "we have a possible threat," the cockpit crew probably had no real choice.

The fact that they held the pax on the plane on the ground for so long is evidence that either they didn't really think it was much of a threat (and were more interested in catching/blaming someone on board) or that they don't give a damn about the lives of a half-747-load of pax. Probably both.

But if it were a "real" threat I would expect a full-up evacuation as soon as the wheels stopped turning, or I would evaluate my options for suing the airline.

bdschobel

Very good point. If the authorities -- or, for that matter, the passengers themselves -- thought that a real bomb were on board, you would expect to see a rapid evacuation. No, they just wanted to make an example out of somebody -- and even failed to do that!!!

Bruce