Monday
15 Oct 2007
Frontier Airlines Confirms Incident on Flight 623
By Annie Jacobsen in category Dry Runs and Probes, U.S. Homeland Security
Frontier Airlines spokesman Joe Hodas has confirmed the incident on Flight 623 which occurred Sunday, October 7, on a Denver-to-Detroit flight. The security incident involved an Arab man who locked himself in the first class lavatory (adjacent to the cockpit) and refused to come out despite orders to do so from flight crew. The FBI met the flight — along with more than a dozen law enforcement officers.
In our interview, Hodas told me, "[The Passenger] was very intently watching the flight attendants. Before he went in [to the bathroom] for so long, he was up and down in between his seat and the bathroom. We alerted the FBI. After the flight landed, the FBI took over. I was told the passenger was shaving in the bathroom. The passenger did nothing that was hampering the immediate safety of the aircraft, but our flight crew felt his behavior was suspicious and that's why took the actions we did. Our flight attendants know how to recognize behavior that might jeopardize an aircraft."
Ten points for Frontier Airlines. Fifty points for the alert flight attendant. This kind of proactive behavior by a sharp-thinking flight crew, coupled with a supportive airline, illustrates to groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) — financiers of the Flying Imams' federal lawsuit — that suspicious behavior on airplanes will not be tolerated. And that flight crew will not be bullied into silence for fear of egregious lawsuits sponsored by groups like CAIR.
And another ten points to Frontier passenger, Timothy Furnas, who originally contacted me about this incident. Without eye-witnesses who are willing to come forward with their accounts, we are left knowing only what that Department of Homeland Security is willing to tell.
This morning, I discussed Frontier Flight 623 with Greg Allen on his radio show, The Right Balance.