Unattended Camera Sparks Emergency Diversion for United Flight
When a flight attendant discovered a camera stuffed in an air-sickness bag aboard Tuesday evening’s United flight from Newark to Geneva – and could not find its owner – emergency procedures were immediately activated including a diverted landing in Boston complete with an escort of F-15 fighter jets.
Flight Diverted, Fighter Jet Escort
The camera’s owner was eventually identified as a passenger who’d simply forgotten it while traveling on an earlier flight aboard the same aircraft.
While some may question such full-blown security measures to deal with a standard tourist accoutrement, consider this:
Needles found in Delta Sandwiches
Cameras and Terrorism
According to ABCNews.com, in one of the post 9-11 terror plots, terrorists experimented with cameras “either as devices or as part of the mechanism for triggering a bomb.” The news report also cited the more recent foiled ‘underwear bomb’ plot, which may have ultimately involved an explosive camera design.
Another Flight Delay
As for the 168 passengers and crew members of United’s aborted flight 956, they could not immediately continue on their way to Geneva after the camera was removed and all aboard were rescreened, due to weather conditions at Logan. The flight is scheduled to take off for Geneva later today.
