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DENVER – A Qatari diplomat trying to sneak a smoke in an airplane bathroom sparked a bomb scare Wednesday night on a flight from Washington to Denver, with fighter jets scrambled and law enforcement put on high alert, officials said.No explosives were found on the man, and officials do not believe he was trying to harm anyone, according to senior law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity…
Apparently, trying to lighten the situation, Mohammed Al-Madadi “made a joke that he had been trying to light his shoes.” This led to unpleasant consequences.
This guy must have spent too much time out in the Mideastern sun, or something…
I understand why, in this country, we don’t want to single people out for special attention based on demographics. But maybe we could just scrutinize Arabic-looking men with really sick sense of humor. Would that fly?
or maybe the people who went bat-sh*t could get some sense of perspective and a grip on reality?
“Reality” is that it’s against the law to make jokes like that (isn’t it?)
For you, for me, and for Mohammed.
I think it’s against the law to do it at screening points. It’s also against the law to smoke on planes. I’m not sure there’s a law against joking on planes, even about being a terrorist.(The guy’s a diplomat–trying to smooth things over, I guess. Fail) Might provide probable cause for a search, but to scramble planes when they already busted the guy? Overkill, imho.
KF
Guys who fly fighters love to scramble! Any excuse will do. False scares are still good training.
Besides, smoking is America’s revenge on the rest of the world.
Apparently, the diplomat was headed to a federal prison to visit a man who was convicted of plotting or abetting terrorism.
If the diplomat is so damn stupid to make a comment like he did, he deserves the treatment and reaction he received.
“went bat-sh*t” Kathryn? You can do better than that. I think maybe we should consider what message would be sent if nothing was done. I’m surprised the passengers didn’t beat the crap out of the guy.
@Bart–
Look, he was caught smoking and made some snarky joke–surely we can handle that without scrambling jets? If he were a real problem, sure, the passengers would have taken care of him.
What’s next, SWAT teams at schools where kids are caught smoking? Maybe we need to turn some of Katrina Shealy’s excess assistant principals (today’s letter to the editor) into sky marshalls. They know how to deal with surreptitious smokers.
Kathryn, you’re missing the point, which Mr. Burlingame so ably presented above:
If we didn’t overreact to these things, the fighter jocks wouldn’t get to scramble the jets! Do you realize what a rush it is going to afterburner while your wheels are still lifting? And it IS good training.
Try to focus, here…
Yeah, I know…it only costs a bazillion dollars to fly those bad boys, and then what, they only crash maybe one a year?
I have a soft spot for military pilots. That said, it occurred to me that possibly there would be something the pilots could do to protect those on the ground should something happen mid-air. And they do have to practice anyway. We always want a ready military and a ready police force. It was a “live” drill of a sort. And it is their job.