This is getting ridiculous. On Friday, Aug. 25, there were six -- count them, six -- incidents that caused the diversion of flights, including a Continental Airlines flight from Argentina to Houston that had a piece of luggage with a stick of dynamite in it.
The Associated Press listed the other five incidents:
- A utility knife was found on a vacant passenger seat of a U.S. Airways flight traveling from Philadelphia to Bradley International Airport in Connecticut, state police said.
- A U.S. Airways jet was diverted to Oklahoma City after a federal air marshal reportedly subdued a passenger who was involved in an incident with a flight attendant, officials said.
- An American Airlines flight from England to Chicago was forced to land in Bangor, Maine, for security reasons
- A Continental Airlines Flight for Bakersfield, Texas, was diverted to EL Paso after the crew discovered a missing panel in the lavatory, said Amy von Walter, a Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman.
- An Aer Lingus flight from New York to Dublin was evacuated Friday morning during a scheduled stopover in western Ireland following a bomb threat that turned out to be unfounded, officials said.
I'm not even going to ask why a college student had a stick of dynamite in his luggage during these high-anxiety times. His claim that he worked in construction sounded a little weak to me. But thank goodness those canine units were on the job and smelled the explosive, which is highly volatile if not handled carefully.
Although incidents like this have to be checked just in case the threat is real, it causes disruptions that ripple across the global aviation system. The question is whether these disruptions will force the very passengers who pay the bills -- the business traveler -- away from the already beleaguered airlines into the waiting arms of the private jet market. Only time will tell.
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