Originally Posted by Bart

Interesting, as always, to read the comments made in these forums by the Monday Morning Quarterbacks. Once again, it's all about context and perspective:

1. The flight departed out of London which, in case you haven't noticed, is Ground Zero for this latest terrorist plot. So, of course, the pilots, crew members and authorities are going to be extra sensitive to anything that is remotely suspicious or out-of-the-ordinary on these flights.

2. I don't have any additional insights into the response procedures. However, I assume that because of the slow military response on 9/11, military aircraft are specifically on call to respond as soon as there's any sign of trouble. I don't know what was transmitted or how information was conveyed, but I presume the conventional wisdom was to get the fighters airborne and then recall them if not needed than to wait until a definite need was confirmed before sending them up. To reasonable people, this should make sense.

3. While relying on the media to account for what happened, I think we can safely assume that the flight crew acted professionally and handled this matter accordingly. While the media and overanxious worry warts on the ground were speculating about what was going on in the aircraft, I think what we'll find out is that the crew members had everything under control but followed very specific procedures detailed for flights originating out of the UK.

Had this been on a different flight, say from New Orleans to Atlanta, then perhaps we would be right in expecting a different response. But this flight did originate from London and was flying into Washington DC. It fit the parameters for what the bad guys were trying to do.

Originally Posted by chartreuse

Wouldn't the presence of LEOs be SOP regardless? And do we have any reason to believe that she is being charged other than reports via already discredited media sources?

Originally Posted by GUWonder

Sending her and her belongings to LEOs for questioning and searching before the hospital would put your theory to bed -- for that's a clear indication that her health situation was deemed a less pressing matter than a law enforcement/security investigation.

Originally Posted by chartreuse

But do we have hard evidence that that's what happened? We don't know whether EMTs were with the LEOs, we don't even know whether her condition at landing was such as to indicate hospitalisation.

As I've said, we're operating on fragmented, unreliable info, which is perfectly suited to being used to advance all types of agenda.

Originally Posted by GUWonder

There's hard evidence -- if that's what you call doj emails and telephone calls discussing the matter -- that she was questioned by federal law enforcement. ;)

Originally Posted by chartreuse

But no hard evidence as to the environment in which said questioning was carried out (e.g. while under the care of an EMT etc) or the time (e.g. after medical care). And nothing about any other pax who may have been questioned?

Originally Posted by GUWonder

On the contrary, hard evidence of where the questioning was done, who it was done by and who were witnesses to the questioning and who else was NOT around the immediate vicinity at the time, who came a bit later, and what was NOT needed. There's also hard evidence of who accessed that information thereafter. ;)

Originally Posted by daw617

The following essay seems relevant: http://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2006/08...ou-scared.html

Excerpts:

Originally Posted by GUWonder

1. Ground Zero for this latest terrorist plot was not London. At most, that'd be somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean; at least, it'd be Pakistan or -- if buying the Pakistani government's latest spin -- Afghanistan.

2. That's how it "works", but not necessarily "reasonable" -- especially not given these circumstances.

3. It cannot be systematically assumed that the flight crew acted professionally and handled this matter accordingly. There are an increasing number of paranoid and nervous nelly persons in the air, both passengers and crews.

4. London-DC flights are not what the latest persons arrested in the UK, Pakistan and Italy had even researched most. ;) Of course, there will be people that will arrive at conjecture after the fact to explain away the "official" reactions for anything and everything under the sun -- and those justifications are, implicitly, Monday Morning Quarterbacking.

Originally Posted by Bart

You're the quarterback, sport. I won't spoil your game.

Originally Posted by UNITED959

Couldn't they have flown the extra hour and landed in IAD to avoid all the hassle?