Passenger: Pilot Asked Her Whether To Turn Back
Another Dry Run? Redeye LA to Philly US Airways Flight Incident Uninvestigated
29 January 2010: A South Jersey woman got the scare of her life when she tried to report suspicious activity on board a plane Philadelphia International Airport.
The woman shared details of her terrifying ordeal only with Fox 29 News on Wednesday.
Now, she’s wondering if it was some kind of sick joke or a test run for a terrorist.
Fox 29’s Dave Schratwieser reported that 12 days after her red-eye flight from Los Angeles, the US Airways passenger is still upset over an incident on her flight, the reaction to it by the flight crew, and the lack of reaction from authorities.
“I was trembling, and I was just completely frightened,” said the mother of three.
She won ‘t soon forget her latest US Airways flight from L.A. to Philadelphia after she encountered a passenger on board who scared the daylights out of her.
“He starts talking to himself. Then he goes, ‘Detroit, huh-huh-huh,’ like that, and it was really, really frightening,” she said.
The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, said the passenger was Muslim and repeatedly made a reference to the latest terrorism incident in Detroit on Christmas Day with the so called “underwear bomber.”
The passenger immediately told a flight attendant, who then told the pilot before the plane even left the gate.
What the flight attendant said next shocked the passenger: “‘The pilot has asked me to ask you if you think we should leave the gate.’ And I looked at her, and I said, ‘What?’”
The woman told Fox 29 News no one from the flight crew spoke to the man or investigated further. Then, the pilot made a call to the flight attendant.
The passenger said the flight attendant, “Looks at me and says, ‘We need an answer.’ … She’s like, ‘We’re gonna go, but I’ll keep an eye on him.’”
The flight took off. The woman sat terrified for five hours all of the way to Philadelphia.
Then, just before the plane landed, the pilot ordered everyone to remain seated. The passenger said that’s when the man got up, walked to the rear of the plane and put his backpack in an overhead bin, then went to the bathroom.
“I’m like, ‘This is it, this is how I’m gonna die,’” she said.
No one questioned the woman or the suspicious passenger in Philadelphia.
When she tried to report it to the Transportation Security Administration, Homeland Security, US Airways, even the FBI, she got nowhere.
“He listened to my entire story, never took my name, the flight information, nothing, and told me that, if there was an issue, US Air would have contacted them,” the woman said.
The woman said US Airways told her if the man got through security, there’s nothing to worry about.
A TSA spokesperson told Fox 29 that if you have an incident like this onboard a flight you should immediately report it to a TSA customer service person at the airport when you arrive.
Fox 29 is waiting for a response from US Airways.
NOTE: If anyone reading this knows this South Jersey woman please ask her to contact the Northeast Intelligence Network ( .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) ) or this blog directly ( .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) ).
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