Child Abduction at 35,000 Feet Diverts United Flight
Jeff Edwards September 05, 2014
A Beijing-bound United Airlines flight was ordered to return to Virginia after the FBI was alerted to a potential child abduction.
CBS News is reporting that a United Airlines flight from Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) to Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK) was ordered to return to IAD by the FBI on Thursday, 2 hours and 30 minutes after its departure. The FBI took the extraordinary step of recalling the aircraft after a United States citizen alerted the agency that he believed the mother of his child planned to take their son to China and not return.
When the FBI discovered that the mother and child were already aboard a Beijing-bound flight, they ordered the aircraft to return to United States jurisdiction in an attempt to avoid the international custody battle that would have likely followed had the plane landed anywhere outside of the United States.
The pilot of the United flight originally told passengers onboard that the plane was returning to IAD due to mechanical issues. After the situation was diffused, more than 5 hours after takeoff, the captain let passengers in on the real reason for the diversion. The pilot told passengers he had deliberately misled them about the reasons for turning the aircraft around due to the potentially volatile nature of the child abduction in progress.
Witnesses told CBS This Morning that the aircraft was met by police and FBI agents who took the child’s mother in to custody on attempted kidnapping charges. The child was returned to his father unharmed.
[Photo: iStock]
The situation was 'defused', not 'diffused'.
What a disproportionate show of force by a Federal Agency. If they are too lazy to wait for the results of a potential extradition from China - if it then was an actual abduction - then at least let the flight stop en route. A landing in Toronto or Buffalo would be a lesser waste of time and fuel for the passengers and the airline than traveling all the way back. It seems that these days neither agencies nor unruly passengers are in any form or shape liable for the cost and disruption they cause.
Amazing. Such strong protection of our borders in the skies, why won't Obama and Congress protect our borders on the ground?
It was defused, not diffused!
[B]mherdeg[/B] raises the interesting question of "who pays the bill here?" However further discussion on FT is not possible since thread has been locked.