More Details On 'Aisle Qaeda' Flight
Feds Say Unruly Passenger Made Threats, Referred To Al Qaeda, Urinated
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Play CBS Video Video Transatlantic Jetliner Scare Fighter jets were scrambled after a passenger created a disturbance on a United Airlines flight from London to Washington. As Bob Orr reports, the plane was escorted safely to Boston.
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Video Passenger Disrupts Flight A United Airlines flight from London to Dulles, Va., was diverted to Boston because the flight crew believed an unruly female passenger may have been a threat. Aleen Sirgany reports.
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Video Flight From London Diverted CBS News RAW: Using police dogs, airport security checked bags from a United Airlines flight from London that was diverted to Boston because of an unruly passenger.
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A dog with its handler walks past United Fliight 923 on the tarmac at Logan Airport in Boston on Aug. 16, 2006. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
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Suitcases from United Flight 923 are spread on the tarmac at Boston's Logan Airport for inspection by bomb-sniffing dogs on Aug. 16, 2006. (CBS)
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Police and ground crews are seen among the luggage from United Flight 923 on the tarmac at Logan Airport in Boston on Aug. 16, 2006. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
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Interactive Trans-Atlantic Terror Plot Scheme to blow up U.S.-bound aircraft is foiled in U.K.; aviation security ratcheted up.
"She made reference to being with people associated with two words. She stated that she could not say what the two words were because the last time that she had said the two words she had been kicked off of a flight in the United Arab Emirates," according to the affidavit.
The captain and purser both believed that she was referring to al Qaeda, Choldin wrote.
About 35 minutes later, when she tried to go to the bathroom, the flight attendants directed her to a different lavatory. Instead, she pulled down her pants and urinated on the floor, Choldin wrote in the affidavit, which was based on his interviews and those of other federal officials.
At that point, the captain ordered her restrained. Two male passengers helped a flight attendant tackle Mayo and restrain her in plastic cuffs. She remained seated in the galley area of the plane until the flight landed, according to the affidavit.
The outburst on the flight — just a week after London authorities said they foiled a terror plot to blow up trans-Atlantic flights — prompted a massive security scare.
Gov. Mitt Romney said the woman was claustrophobic and became so upset she had to be restrained, and passengers said Mayo appeared to have emotional problems.
"She was in a frenzy," passenger Martin Drinkwater of London told The Boston Globe. "She then pulled her trousers and knickers down and squatted on the floor."
Antony Nash, 31, of San Diego, said he grew nervous watching the muttering woman seated near him, as she paced and made too many trips to the bathroom. The pilot did not make a general announcement to passengers of what was happening.
"I noticed F-15s next to the plane. I said, 'Oh my God.' And then we saw the emergency vehicles," Nash said.
Terror scares garner particular attention in Boston because of Logan's history. Members of al Qaeda hijacked two planes from Logan on Sept. 11, 2001, and flew them into the World Trade Center towers in New York.
Logan Airport also was where an American Airlines Paris-to-Miami flight was diverted in 2001 when Richard Reid, the so-called shoe bomber, tried to blow up the plane. He was thwarted by attendants and passengers after he tried to light a fuse leading to the concealed plastic explosives in his sneakers. He is now serving a life prison sentence.
©MMVI CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
