US airlines twitchy on security as 9/11 anniversary nears
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With the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on New York just days away, airlines and security authorities are on guard.
Some odd incidents have happened of late. Investigators suspect that two male airline passengers arrested in Amsterdam at the weekend may have been conducting a ‘dry run’ for a potential terrorist attack. Suspicious items in their baggage included a mobile phone taped to a bottle of indigestion remedy, multiple mobile phones and watches taped together and a knife and box cutter.
The strange items and some erratic and sudden changes in the men’s travel itineraries made authorities suspect that something was being planned. US media have reported that neither of the two suspects – identified as Ahmed Mohamed Nasser al Soofi and Hezam al Murisi – were on US terror watch lists. They were arrested at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport after getting off a United Airlines flight from Chicago. Under Dutch law they can be held for up to six days without charge.
In a separate incident in the US, meanwhile – nine non-US-born people aboard a United Airlines flight to Tampa were removed from the aircraft.
A US television channel quoted a passenger on the flight as saying the men were of Pakistani descent and one had made an “inaproporate” comment that made a flight attendant feel uncomfortable. Several passengers demanded to be booked on other flights.
Memories of 9/11 – and of foiled plots after that, such as the ‘shoe bomber’ and the ‘underwear bomber’ – make US airline passengers understandably edgy around this time.
Written by William Sykes
