The Smell of FEAR Unit

I think that this past Friday's seven unrelated incidents on US and international airlines that caused disruptions, none of which in the final analysis could be attributed to any kind of terrorism, is a combination of natural anxiety in the wake of the foiled British plot (such that it was), new and confusing regulations that TSA and airport security has struggled with, and an injection of good old-fashioned FEAR Unit (Federal Even-yeared Anti-terror Response). I would say it doesn not hurt the Administration cause at this point, at least in their minds, to have CNN bombard viewers with one unscheduled plane landing after another, no matter what the reason. I mean, look at these so-called threats:

--An American Airlines flight from England to Chicago was forced to land in Bangor after federal officials "learned of a reported threat," FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz said. Some people on board said a fellow passenger was handcuffed and placed in a police car as they were leaving the jetliner.

Marcinkiewicz said no one was arrested but declined to say if anyone from the flight out of Manchester was in custody.

--A US Airways jet was diverted to Oklahoma City's Will Rogers World Airport after a federal air marshal subdued a disruptive passenger who had pushed a flight attendant, the FBI said.

The passenger was undergoing a mental evaluation, and authorities had yet to determine what criminal charges he might face. The twin-engine jet returned to flight three hours later on its trip from Phoenix to Charlotte, N.C.

--A Continental Airlines flight from Corpus Christi, Texas, to Bakersfield, Calif., was held in El Paso, one of its scheduled stops, after the crew discovered a missing panel in the lavatory, authorities said. Passengers were being screened and interviewed, Amy von Walter of the Transportation Security Administration said.

--A utility knife was found on a vacant passenger seat of a US Airways flight that had traveled from Philadelphia to Bradley International Airport in Connecticut, state police said.

No arrests were made and there were no threats involved, said Master Sgt. J. Paul Vance, state police spokesman. He said it was unknown Friday whether a worker inadvertently left the knife on the plane or a passenger brought it on.

--An Aer Lingus flight from New York to Dublin was evacuated Friday morning during a scheduled stopover in western Ireland following a bomb threat that turned out to be unfounded, officials said.

-- A United Airlines flight out of Chicago's O'Hare International Airport was delayed because a small boy said something inappropriate, according to a government official speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information. "He didn't want to fly," the official said.

The Manchester-to-Chicago flight, American Airlines Flight 55, was diverted to Bangor for security reasons, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Arlene Murray said.

A passenger pushed a flight attendant. A decrepit Continental plane has a panel missing in its bathroom. A kid said "I have a bomb" or something like that. Yep, that's all it takes these days to scramble the jets which didn't scramble on 9/11.

Meanwhile we had an actual airline tragedy yesterday, occurring because the pilot went down the wrong runway. These are unrelated issues, but the procedures by which pilots get cleared for takeoff and discuss their flight path obviously were confused and damaged here. This is priority one for safe flying, not a snot-nosed kid mouthing off or a mentally unstable dude pushing a stewardess. I'm not connecting the two in any way, but it's salient that this is the first air disaster on US soil in five years (since a crash in the NYC area that killed upwards of 250 passengers).

Think about that the next time FEAR Unit trots out footage of some other plane being diverted by fighter jets because somebody looked at somebody the wrong way.