Fed: United Airlines still has no explanation for delayed flight

AAP General News (Australia)
12-27-2001
Fed: United Airlines still has no explanation for delayed flight

By Anthony Stavrinos

SYDNEY, Dec 27 AAP - Passengers on a Sydney-bound flight delayed for four hours while
three men were removed by police deserve an explanation from the airline, an Australian
on the flight said today.

United Airlines was today still unable to say why it asked police at London's Heathrow
Airport to remove the passengers or why the flight was delayed for more than four hours
while security checks were carried out.

The pilot told passengers the men were not sitting together but were taken from first,
business and economy class.

The flight was delayed for four hours after armed police boarded it to remove the three,
British police confirmed today.

Jack Richardson, 17, from Manly on Sydney's northern beaches who was on the plane,
said passengers should have been given a reason for the raid.

Passengers assumed it was terrorism-related, especially when a man carrying explosives
in his shoes was found on a transatlantic flight the previous day.

"It would have been good if they (United Airlines) just told us and it would have stopped
the speculation," Mr Richardson told AAP.

"I definitely did think it was (related to) terrorism.

Flight UA 931, from London to Sydney via San Francisco, left Heathrow terminal as scheduled
at about 2pm (GMT) on Monday afternoon (0100 AEDT Tuesday).

But according to Mr Richardson, the plane stopped on the runway and the pilot advised
of mechanical problems.

"The pilot came on (the PA) and said that he had a few mechanical problems and that
we'd have to turn back and go to the gate," he said.

"We sat for about half an hour and then he comes on again and says that there's been
a problem on-board and that three people have been escorted off."

He said the pilot then told more than 100 remaining passengers they would all have
to leave the plane and take all baggage with them to be searched.

Each passenger was scanned through a metal detector and all hand luggage was thoroughly
searched by security personnel.

"Even if you had to go to the toilet whilst you were off the plane, you had to get
escorted," he said.

"They checked your shoes and patted everyone down thoroughly and there was a sniffer
dog waiting. Whilst we were off, they said the whole plane had to be searched and sniffer-dogged."

With the images of the devastating terrorist attacks on the US still fresh in people's
minds, the sight of armed personnel was unsettling.

"When we were actually leaving the plane to be searched there were men throughout the
plane with semi-automatics just standing there at the ready, if you will... a bit unnerving
to say the least," Mr Richardson said,

He said later the pilot said "he's not at liberty to tell us exactly what happened....

but the fact is a man from first class, a man from business class and a man from economy
class had all been arrested and escorted off the plane."

The flight eventually took off, almost four-and-a-half hours behind schedule, Mr Richardson said.

A spokeswoman from the Metropolitan Police Service in London said the airline had sought
the assistance of police to remove three passengers from the flight.

"At about 3.15pm (GMT) on Monday (0215 AEDT Tuesday), three passengers on a flight
from London Heathrow to San Francisco were asked to leave the plane by police at the request
of the airline company," she told AAP.

"No offences were discovered, no arrests were made and there was no further action taken."

The basis on which the airline had sought the passengers' removal was a matter for
United Airlines to decide whether to reveal, the police spokeswoman said.

A spokeswoman for United Airlines in the UK, Ruth Hornsby, confirmed the flight had
been delayed but declined to provide further details.

The airline's public affairs head, Sussana Lehary, from Chicago in the US, told AAP
the matter was still being investigated and that details of the incident had not been
provided yet by its London administration.

AAP as/arb/jmd/br a

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