sethb

If I had received that sort of indirect threat and the person issuing it were still around, the last thing I'd want to do is call his attention to me by audibly calling 911 or being seen talking to a police officer. Sending a text message that he can't see is much safer.

Yellowjj

OP was this man on your flight to IAH as well?


Speaking to authorities should have been the logical choice first as everyone has already stated. Imagine if this gentleman was indeed disturbed and assembled his guns after getting them at IAH. It would be Esteban Santiago all over again. With LEO's being everywhere in a major airport, it's relatively easy to report something, anonymously.

adambrau

Sorry to the OP to have had such a weird and, coming out of nowhere, experience occur. I have never heard anything like this - I tend to think whoever Mr Big was dealing out the threats of 'being careful' clearly leads such a pathetic life that he feels he needs to impress strangers that he travels with guns or whatever.

While I would like to believe I would have told the person to move away from me and then gone to a supervisor at the counter, to have them call law enforcement, you might well have been caught up in your thoughts/world which this whack job spooks you. If the man meant harm then the last thing he would do, with the hindsight of afterthought, would be to NOT alert others in such a fashion.

Surprised the UA agent went awol right after the incident - I can only hope she mentioned something to her supervisor. I think the agent had more responsibility than you to deal with the loser. And you did report the incident.

Truly one of the most bizarre stories I have read on FT ever! Hopefully the rest of your flying days are smoother!


Adam

mauve

I think can infer what that means. If I'm right, that means you don't normally respond to calls from the general public.

If you call 911, the call taker is going to have your phone number, your name, and usually your location within a few hundred meters. I'm personally aware of situations where the police have outed a caller to the people they were calling about. And, for example, when I've called 911 to report an assault, the responding Officer let the offender drive away and detained me for questioning.

I'm not saying that someone shouldn't call, but I think it's important to understand there are real reasons why people may be hesitant to call the Police.

Traveling ups the risks. If the OP had called, there's a reasonable chance they would have been in for a few hours of questioning and out the price of a new plane ticket.

kale73

While MSY is owned by the city of New Orleans it's not actually in the city of New Orleans. It's out of NOPD's jurisdiction. The Kenner city police and (to a lesser extent IME) the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office provide law enforcement at MSY.

That said, this was New Orleans. There's a strong possibility the creepy guy was drunk.

garkster

Well mark me down as "really confused". On the MSY airport website, at this page:
Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport - Security Information & Alerts

They say this:

So much for the conventional wisdom. I'm sure they have signs posted everywhere as to the non-911 phone number to call.

OP's sin therefore was apparently to use social media rather than do a deep dive on the web to get the special phone #. Just kidding, sort of.

I am interested, however, in the apparent lack of interest displayed by the agent who heard/saw the same unusual behavior by the mysterious stranger.

threeoh

He may not have been a stranger to the agent. "Oh, this guy again...".

txirish

I had this same thought.
If the guy seemed to be a clear and present danger, I'd find a cop or TSA person and accept that there was a good chance I'd miss the flight. If the guy just seemed eccentric and I didn't feel overly threatened, I'd look for a way to deal with it that reduced the chance of being detained myself. Maybe report what I observed to the airline staff - they could no doubt find the right security person faster than I could. In fact, going directly to staff, preferably a supervisor, might be more expeditious than running around looking for a cop or heading for a TSA checkpoint farther into the terminal - I'm sure staff has a hotline where than immediately summon LE, and I could keep the nutcase in view vs. trying to describe him.

In this case, the threatening language and gun cases would tip me in the aggressive reporting direction, but I get that the OP was conflicted as to how to deal with this in the heat of the moment. And, even though in hindsight we can agree that social media wasn't the best approach, it's clear the OP didn't find the situation so scary at the time that he needed to yell for help or refuse to board the flight.

enviroian

Some are being way too harsh on the OP. He admitted his mistake and {came} here in the first place to explain the incident.

Hindsight is 20/20 and I'd say that about 95% of the posters on FT say "do this, do that" or "I would have done this or done that" is easy to say over your keyboard sipping a latte but at the end of the day most of you wouldn't do anything and are too scared to be confrontational .

My $0.02.

zitsky

My guess is this guy was mentally ill and maybe unpredictable. It would freak me out. I don't think I would call police if I had a flight to catch.

narvik

THAT'S even scarier!

adambrau

No criticism intended - none of us were there. But if someone has guns and appears mentally unstable that is the one instance where I would most certainly seek out law enforcement. It sounds like this threatener has no reason to even own a water pistol, but even if he/she was possibly just being an idiot I would not take the chance. Truly bizarre sense of humor if that is what it was.

iluv2fly

dhuey

TomMM

I like the security message they play on the TFL and Underground trains in London:

See It. Say It. Sorted