Adventures in Flying - [Crazies]

Posted by Chubbypanda at 11/29/2006 11:42:00 PM

Well, I'm back from the Lesser Grey North. Actually, I was back Tuesday morning, but I spent most of the day getting caught up on office work, then slept like the dead as soon as I got home. Expect a slew of posts about NorCal eateries during the next week or two.



My vacation got off to a rather adventurous start. As I was exiting the restaurant at John Wayne Airport, a rather stern-faced Orange County Sheriff stopped me from approaching my gate, Gate 6, and motioned me to the side of the main terminal thoroughfare. It was at that point that I realized that the entire left half of the terminal, from Gate 7 through Gate 1, was lined on both sides with Orange County Sheriffs standing roughly fifteen feet apart. Each of them was standing at guard, with their right hands on their sidearms. The leather safety straps which fixed their guns to their holsters were unbuttoned for unrestricted drawing. These officers meant business.



Since the zone I was restricted to was right next to Gate 7, I had a front row seat as the passengers were forced to disembark under armed escort. They traversed a gauntlet of sheriffs and suspicious or curious travelers before being placed in a holding area at the end of the terminal where I was told they were to be detained. I felt the sorriest for one of the last sets of people to leave the plane; a large, Middle Eastern family. The women in their traditional hijabs seemed to visibly wilt as the walked down the long aisle. The men grew angrier, while the children seemed aware that something was wrong.



After the interior of the plane was searched, the passengers were allowed back on. The OC Sheriffs gathered in small clusters, conversing quietly while eyeing the passengers. I didn't notice the Middle Eastern family get back on board the plane, although I kept my eye out for them.



Once the passengers were back on the plane, their luggage was unloaded onto the tarmac and systematically examined by officers with police dogs.



(Video of Orange County Sheriffs searching luggage.)


As the last call went out for any remaining passengers to re-board, I finally learned that the plane in questions was flight 217 bound for Phoenix, Arizona.



At this point, boarding began for my flight to San Jose, so I had to stop taking pictures. I never did learn the reason that the flight was searched or the passengers detained. The OC Sheriffs were all tight-lipped when asked and my Google searches over the next several days turned up no news or articles about the incident, which occurred at roughly 1:00pm Thanksgiving afternoon.



If anyone can shed some light on what it was I witnessed, I'd very much appreciate it.

For those of you with sharp eyes, all of my pictures were taken after the passengers started re-boarding the plane. Before that, the twin lines of Sheriffs were keeping such a sharp eye out that any attempt to take pictures or video would have instantly been noticed given where I was standing. The officers weren't taking any chances. They were watching both us and the passengers like hawks.

Apologies to those of you here for the food articles. This is my only non-food post from this trip.

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10 comments:

  1. Anonymous said... 11/30/2006 11:39:00 AM

    Wow, definitely crazies. I haven't heard anything about this incident and my Google searches have resulted in nothing as well. I'm very curious about what happened.

    My sister's flying out of John Wayne airport this afternoon! I hope that this doesn't happen to her.  

  2. Anonymous said... 12/01/2006 11:58:00 AM

    That's crazy stuff! John Wayne is (was) actually my fav airport to fly out of...

    Also, couldn't find any info on what the exact reason was...  

  3. Anonymous said... 12/02/2006 08:54:00 AM

    If you really want to know, you could call the Register's news desk, ask for the transportation or airport reporter, ask them. Sounds like you'd be tipping them off though, instead of the other way around.  

  4. Chubbypanda said... 12/02/2006 11:15:00 AM

    Christine D,

    Yup. I'm actually really surprised that it didn't show up in an article or blog post somewhere. I wonder if it being Thanksgiving Day had something to do with it. Or the OC Sheriffs might have just been really good at clamping down on any leaks.

    Henry,

    John Wayne is still my favorite airport to fly out of. From what I could gather, it was the closest one that the flight could be redirected to, and the OC Sheriffs were mobilized instead of local police because it was within state/federal jurisdiction.

    WC,

    I actually thought about that, but it's such old news now that I doubt any of the news agencies would care. I wasn't really interested in making news myself at the time, so I thought that sharing my experience with my blogger buddies was probably enough. That's why I waited until after I got home from my trip to post.

    - Chubbypanda  

  5. Anonymous said... 12/02/2006 12:28:00 PM

    CP, I was thinking along the lines of the Muslim families with kids ie. more racial profiling. I'm thinking of that flight with the imams and passengers thinking they were terrorists b/c they were praying.

    The fact that it wasn't mentioned in the news most likely meant it was a minor security concern. Such is the world we live in these days that searches become rather routine. So that in and of itself is not that newsworthy unless someone was detained or flights were majorly delayed.  

  6. Chubbypanda said... 12/04/2006 12:53:00 AM

    Weird. The identities of some of my commentors was stripped out when I made the switch to Blogger Beta. Ah well, from my email, I know that that last comment was made by Wandering Chopsticks.

    Great points, WC. Definitely food for thought.

    - Chubbypanda  

  7. joanh said... 12/06/2006 07:22:00 PM

    wow.. i've never seen anything like this and usually john wayne is so mellow.. they probably want to keep everything on the DL though, maybe it ended not being anything  

  8. joanh said... 12/06/2006 07:22:00 PM

    PS congrats on making the switch to blogger beta!!!  

  9. Chubbypanda said... 12/06/2006 10:35:00 PM

    Hey Joan,

    It was really freaky. The people who weren't excited/rubbernecking were pretty scared.

    Thanks! My offer link finally appeared, so I switched. So far, I like.

    - Chubbypanda  

  10. Anonymous said... 2/08/2010 09:22:00 PM

    Here is what happened:
    Someone called in a bomb threat, the Sheriff's Office responded by searching the plane with explosive detection K-9's.
    The end. Happens more than you can imagine.  

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