Allegations Of Photography Cause Plane Evacuation, 2.5-Hour Delay On United Flight

Remember when we had real things to worry about? Like Mutual Assured Destruction? I miss those days.


Like the Jimmy Buffet song...Damn, I miss those commies...

Think about it for a minute. War used to be a terrible worldwide thing for the US caused by huge armies. The events of 9/11 were caused by a handful of people knocking down two buildings. That's IT...two freaking buildings, as horrible as that was... And we are still losing liberties and quality of life.:eek:

And we thought M.A.D. was awful! Idiots all.
 
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In a shocker, none of the men questioned for taking photos had actually done anything wrong. They were released and booked on a later flight. Hopefully they learned their lesson.

Uh....what lesson were they supposed to learn if they had not actually done anything wrong? Even the author of the article is an idiot.:p
 
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In a shocker, none of the men questioned for taking photos had actually done anything wrong. They were released and booked on a later flight. Hopefully they learned their lesson.

Uh....what lesson were they supposed to learn if they had not actually done anything wrong? Even the author of the article is an idiot.:p

Given the general approach of the Consumerist, I'm 99.9999% sure that was sarcasm.
 
That is so sad. My Leica DLux even has an airplane mode.

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Crap...I'm Brown-Skinned, been mistaken for a Middle-Eastern and have been known to carry and use a camera while flying...I'm soooo screwed...
 
Hopefully this is an isolated case, and/or there was other "suspicious" activity going on. I've taken photos on planes for years, before and after September 11, 2001. I usually, but not always, ask a flight attendant as I board if it's o.k. for me to take photos. They have ALWAYS said "of course!" as if I were asking a dumb question. I shouldn't have to ask, but then, I never know what they're going to ban next. Snowglobes, anyone?
 
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The funny thing is, the terrorists don't have to bother terrorizing anymore. They might as well retire now. They've so totally freaked everyone out over the stupidest sh*t. And it's not just travel-related. It's everywhere.
So true, and sadly, it's not terribly funny.
 
I was taking pictures of the sun out of a plane window in March. Luckily nobody was on to me. I got my photos and days later I was able to execute my plan of stealing the sun and replacing it with a fake one.
My girlfriend tried to take some pictures of a really beautiful moon as we were flying back to Miami from South America, and we were at the moment flying over Cuba.
 
I take tons of pictures when I fly, often with a big fat DSLR. Pictures in the terminal. Pictures on the taxiway. Pictures inside the plane. Pictures out the window. No one has ever said "boo" to me. But, of course, you never know when you're going to encounter an imbecile. They're everywhere. Especially @ tsa.gov ...
 
Funny thing is you can goto an airshow and walk around on the tarmac photographing all the commercial and military hardware to your hearts content without any aggravation from anyone. There are some very serious double standards at play. Maybe its just airborne cameras that are dangerous. :angel:

Ooops that smilie has wings on it, arrest it immediately.
 
I would have to agree with you all, but instead of complaining we need to offer suggestions for alternative strategies to cope.

9/11 was not a one time event. Since there have been the shoe bomber, Time Square car bomber, and underwear bomber. If an airplane goes down because of one of these people, people would quit flying, a good thing in my opinion. Air pollution would immediately go away just as it did after 9/11, for those who remember and noticed. I will never forget, we had clear sky for a month and the day the jet started, the dirty fog blanket started up again.

And you have not seen the end of it either, the checks are going to migrate to commuter trains ( remember Madrid) and perhaps road check points. Got this right from Janet Napalitano on Charlie Rose.

Maybe we need to strike first, now, because there is no MAD with terrorists. They are willing to die to eliminate some of us. To be honest, we are probably already too late. Iran is developing a bomb and a rocket. So sure, the reactor is for power and it is a research rocket. Believe that?
 
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NIkon Sam / GoooH:

I am so screwed. My passport shows visa from pakistan and afghanistan. It will be interesting to see if I can enter Australia this coming June....

raytoei
 
The events of 9/11 were caused by a handful of people knocking down two buildings. That's IT...two freaking buildings, as horrible as that was... And we are still losing liberties and quality of life.

Good point. And if airlines hadn't fought tooth and nail over the cost of putting locks on cockpit doors, none of it would have happened.
 
Snowglobes, anyone?

I forgot that I had a snowglobe of the Great Wall in my carry-on bag at Beijing airport. The security folks gave me the third degree. I made my flight, but only after everything I had was spread out on a table and inspected, including my Contax IIa and 15 rolls of film. I can sorta understand the snowglobe concern, given that the liquid could easily be replaced with something flammable or toxic.

If I ever buy another snowglobe, I will pack it in my checked bag. :D
 
My basketball shoes triggered the metal detector at Shanghai airport. They put it through the x-ray and saw wires inside the outsoles and called security. I explained with a demo the wires are for the high tech lacing system. They had a laugh over it. If it was at La Guardia I wonder if I would have been detained.
 
During the first Desert Storm I was doing a ton of flying for work...I left my truck at the airport parking (At the original Ontario Airport (California) you had parking very close to the terminal) and when I returned I found that my truck had been spit on, pissed on and the front driver's fender kicked in with a nice imprint of the offenders tennis shoe bottom...
After that incident I had my wife drop me off instead...I guess someone did like the way I looked...
 
Those busybody tell-tale people probably would never get on a plane again if they knew that Airbus and others have really nice Java-applets online, showing all the specs and all the angles of any plane they sell.
:D
 
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