UPDATED AND BUMPED
From the Astute Bloggers:
MAYBE:Police questioned a passenger on a small commercial plane that flew from Chicago to a northern Michigan resort town on Friday after the crew reported he was acting suspiciously.BTW: THEY DON'T TELL US WHAT THE SUSPECTED PASSENGER'S "PROFILE" IS.Crew members aboard United Airlines Flight 6036 said the 28-year-old California man had taken ''an article'' into the bathroom and left without it, said Traverse City Police Capt. Steve Morgan. The crew found that a panel inside the bathroom had been tampered with, he said.
I THINK THE ENEMY IS TRYING TO INURE US TO SEVERAL POSSIBLE TACTICS IN ORDER TO IMMOBILIZE A POSSIBLE RESPONSE.
UPDATE:
It's no surprise then that Airlines report fewer people are flying
TC airport probe continues
Short-lived drama becomes a puzzle for investigators
By ALEX PIAZZA
Special to the Record-Eagle
Traverse City -- Call it the terror threat that wasn't.
Traverse City's airport closed for about a half-hour Friday morning, police whisked a man off a United Express flight from Chicago, authorities herded passengers into a fire station for intensive questioning, and reports swirled of a bomb threat after a would-be suspect tarried in a commuter plane's restroom.
. . .
A California man, 28, was detained throughout the afternoon after he spent about 15 minutes in the plane's bathroom, where a plastic flap apparently was dislodged sometime during the flight from Chicago.
Traverse City resident Bob Crosby was on the flight, traveling home from a stay in Chicago. He was seated next to a young man who stood and eventually walked to the plane's rear.
"I just happen to have a recollection of seeing him fooling around with his carry-on luggage," Crosby said.
Crosby saw the man handle "a tiny package" before he headed to the plane's restroom.
"I don't know if he took it back there with him," he said.
The passenger, who originally sat next to Crosby, spent roughly 15 minutes in the bathroom, he said.
A flight attendant later discovered a panel inside the bathroom had been "tampered with" after he exited.
Airline officials made an emergency call to police to report "suspicious activity by a passenger on an aircraft," police said.
Local police, Transportation Security Administration officials and FBI investigators were dispatched to Cherry Capital around 10:20 a.m. Friday.
[**]"We exhausted all our officers," said Traverse City Police officer Paul Ellul, who guarded an airport security fence Friday.
. . .
Police would not confirm whether the man was of Middle-Eastern descent.
. . .
Hamilton heard that a fellow passenger apparently saw the man with a white package with blue markings, he said. Authorities searched Hamilton's and other passengers' bags for the package, he said.
Crosby, and his wife, Charlotte, left the airport around 2 p.m. -- nearly four hours after his flight was expected to arrive in Traverse City.
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NOTICE THAT:
1. THE PASSENGERS ARE IDENTIFIED BY THE MSM, WHILE THE SUSPECT IS NOT EVEN DESCRIBED BEYOND AGE AND STATE OF ORIGIN.
2.[**]THE MSM ALSO REPORTS THE EXTENT THIS AIRPORT'S SECURITY WAS STRETCHED.
3.IN OTHER REPORTS, THE PASSENGERS DESCRIBED THIS SUSPECT BEING OF MIDDLE EASTERN DESCENT:
Morgan would not comment on the man's ethnicity, but some passengers said he was of Middle-Eastern descent.