Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: SOB on March 29, 2002, 08:19:55 AM
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Flight Attendant Charged Over Mid-Air Bomb Hoax
Fri Mar 29, 7:07 AM ET
NEWARK, N.J. (Reuters) - A Virgin Atlantic flight attendant suspected of writing a false al Qaeda bomb threat was ordered held on $250,000 bail on Thursday after U.S. authorities charged him with claiming to have found the note on a transatlantic flight that was then diverted to Iceland.
Michael Philippe, 25, of France was being held at a New Jersey county jail on the cash bail ordered by U.S. Magistrate Ronald Hedges in U.S. District Court in Newark.
Officials charge that the Jan. 19 flight from London bound for Orlando, Florida, was diverted after Philippe reported to the flight's captain and another attendant that he had found the misspelled message reading "Bin Laden is the best Americans must die there is a bomb on board Al Quaida" written on an airsickness bag in the plane's toilet.
A second message "American must die" was written on a mirror, he is alleged to have told the crew members.
Based on matching fingerprints and handwriting, the FBI (news - web sites) believes Philippe wrote the messages, an FBI agent's affidavit said.
Icelandic police searched the plane after it landed in Keflavik and found no threat, the FBI said. The plane continued on to Orlando the next day.
Philippe was charged on Thursday in a U.S. District Court in Florida with intimidating a flight crew and aircraft and interference with a flight crew -- one of numerous alarms over security on board airplanes since the Sept. 11 hijackings and attacks on the United States by Islamic militants linked to Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s al Qaeda network.
Philippe faces a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine if convicted.
U.S. marshals are expected to transport Philippe to Orlando soon to face charges in a federal court there, FBI spokeswoman Sara Oates said in Tampa, Florida.
Oates would not comment on whether additional charges would be made.
FBI agents arrested Philippe on Wednesday night at Newark Airport on his way to board a flight on which he was to work, the FBI said.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020329/od_nm/hoax_dc_1&cid=573
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That's got to be a shocker to the flight crew when the FBI shows up and arrests an attendant as they are about to board. What a tool. He should be imprisoned in Iceland.
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All flight attendants should be psyched as part of the hiring process... and they should be payed more too.
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Originally posted by Gunthr
All flight attendants should be psyched as part of the hiring process... and they should be payed more too.
And they should be good-looking, friendly chicks....not flaming gay dudes.
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LOL yup
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LOL
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hey that gives me an idea. let's tune down all the laws to that guy's level, that way even people like that guy can feel included and good about himself.
oh wait, already did that. bet he gets off easy.
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Ya know, this kinda reminds me of the gay thread we had earlier this week. The most blantantly gay men I've ever seen have almost all been flight attendants.....
Makes you wonder....is he doing it to be with Bubba behind bars?
Me thinks he'll be the new soap boy