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Airport Security Not So Tight
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ShareAugust 16, 2006 5:58 PM
A woman managed to slip four cigarette lighters, some loose matches and an open container of petroleum jelly past security officials at London's Heathrow Airport on a flight bound for Dulles Airport in Washington, D.C., this morning, ABC has learned.
All of those items are currently banned on U.S.-bound flights, U.S. authorities said.
Even so the discovery of the items did not trigger the security threat that resulted. The items were only found aboard United Flight 923 when shortly after 9:00 am, a female passenger complained of being claustrophobic, got into an argument with airline flight attendants and was forcibly restrained, Massachusetts police told ABC News.
The woman, later identified as Catherine Mayo, 59, of Vermont, was held pending federal charges. There was no evidence that she had a terrorist intent "at this time," a senior security official said. But that matter was still under investigation.
Following the discovery of the items, aggressive security measures were triggered by an emergency message from the pilot of the Boeing 767. Emergency protocols in this instance called for diversion of the flight and a search of the plane by bomb squads and a heavy weapons team once on the ground.
A senior TSA official's statement earlier in the day that the woman had no banned items in her possession was incorrect, according to Boston Homeland Security officials and Massachusetts State Police.
Officials say a bottle of water in the woman's possession aboard the plane is highly likely to have been obtained aboard -- it bore the airline logo. But all the other items at this time appear to have slipped through airport security in London despite the stringent measures initiated last week as news of a suicide airplane bomb plot involving as many as ten passenger jets unfolded.
Passenger accounts that suggested the woman might have been a journalist testing security were discounted by authorities in Boston and in Washington. So were reports that she had a screwdriver in her possession were also discredited.
United Flight 923 landed at Boston's Logan Airport and was directed to an isolated area where it was searched for explosives. None were found.
August 16, 2006 | Permalink | User Comments (8)
Could we pleeeeeeaaase have Bill CLinton back as President??? Gas was reasonable, terrorists were not threating our country and everything seemed balanced. At least his lies didn't kill any of our people....He will atone and be made to repent in his own time. Hillary on the other hand, is not the right man (oops I mean Woe! Man) but would make a great VP... something she should remember from years past...but I digress. I cannot see any other person on this whole earth that could get a grip on this mess and straighten out our political pile like Bill Clinton could.
Posted by: Kelly j | Aug 16, 2006 8:53:09 PM
I could not agree more with Kelly J. Obviously this country has NEVER been in such a state as it is now~~ We never know from day to day what to expect~~ It is obvious that President George Bush is not doing his job or knowing what to do... or the nation would not be in such a state of panic about everything~~ I vote bring BILL back!!! At least what ever he did or did not do ...did not hurt the nation.
Posted by: Hazel J | Aug 17, 2006 7:51:38 AM
Bill Clinton back as president? My word, what an awful thought. If Clinton was president now we would probably be constantly attacked by terrorists on our own soil. We need a strong president like George Bush to keep us safe.
Posted by: Denny Crane | Aug 17, 2006 10:31:34 AM
Bill Clinton was a good president, things were going good...wish he could run again. I'd vote for him.
Posted by: GT | Aug 17, 2006 12:50:34 PM
Bill Clinton, get real. During Clinton's presidency, and Reno's Justice Department, Osama was allowed to continue PLANNING. Remember 9/11/2001 was just MONTHS after Bush took oath. The planning was for YEARS prior (Clinton Administration). Bush is stuck with Clinton's crap. Bring Clinton back, and we can watch our "leader" continue to degrade his wife, and value of "family". Nice try. Thanks Clinton was given all these radicals' freedom to plan, plot and carry out...
Posted by: JDM | Aug 17, 2006 1:55:11 PM
Thank God for Republicans in office, as least public schools still require that students know their current American events and recent American term history.
If Bill Clinton had HANDLED the problem, we wouldn't be here. Do Democrats understand root cause analysis and cause and effect??? We had the chance to capture Osama bin Laden twice under Clinton. Instead we burned up several $1 million cruise missiles destroying $30 empty tents and an aspirin factory. Under Bill Clinton, in 1993 and in 1996, we pressured the Israelis to agree to a cease fire (didn't work...see current world history)and to ced back lands that were earned from spilled Israeli Army soldier blood. We had the chance to prevent North Korea from developing long range missiles. If we could get the libs off the Supreme Court, ABC News would lose a $200 million defamation of character suit from John Ramsey, and John Karr would have been in jail as someone's bitch for the last 20 years.
Oh, please select Hillary as your Presidential candidate. you will get to know details about her she does not want made public.
Posted by: Byron Guidry | Aug 17, 2006 3:44:34 PM
You have got to be kidding...Clinton is one of the many previous presidents that helped to get us where we are today. George is trying to clean up the messes they have made. Are you idiots so blind you can't see that????
Posted by: No way for Clinton | Aug 18, 2006 12:12:15 PM
Don’t dismiss the woman who forced the plane down with fighter jets as just hysterical. There's more involved than reported in the news. Catherine Mayo is a journalist based in Pakistan writing for the Muslim Paskistani Daily Times. Flying home from Pakistan, she stopped in London. That causes me to wonder why was she flying from London to DC if she was enroute to her residence in Vermont?
Mayo's son, Josh, 31, described his mother as a peace activist and said she had been in Pakistan since March. She has traveled there often since making a pen pal before Sept. 11, 2001. The pen pal hasn't been allowed to visit the United States. I further wonder who is her pen pal and why he isn't allowed to visit the U.S.
I couldn't find out where she was born but she taught in the UK East Midlands Area at the Hillcrest Community School, Gainsborough where she received the Guardian Award for Outstanding New Teacher in 2002. Fifty-nine year old Mayo is largely unknown to her neighbors where she rents a former schoolhouse in Braintree, VT; but is "more familiar" in Northfield where she previously lived with her ex-husband and three children.
Posted by: Grandma Ruth | Aug 23, 2006 10:51:58 AM
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