"NWA Flight 327: 'Terror in the skies' raises question - Where was security?"

Sunday, July 25, 2004

'Terror in the skies' raises question: Where was security?
By Laura Berman
The Detroit (MI) News


On Tuesday, June 29, 2004, Northwest Flight 327 departed from Detroit to
Los Angeles. 

In the four weeks since then, the flight has become notorious - both for
what happened on board and what did not. 

To Annie Jacobsen, a Los Angeles-based business writer whose detailed,
first-hand account of the flight appeared in an online publication July
13, what transpired on the flight went beyond unsettling: Editors at
Womens WallStreet.com titled it, "Terror in the Skies, Again?" 

In it, she described how she, her husband and young son had watched a
group of Middle Eastern men - several of whom boarded in Detroit -
engage in behavior she found to be increasingly chilling as time passed.


Two hours into the 4 1/2-hour flight, Jacobsen said a flight attendant
assured her that there were people on board "higher up than you and me
watching the men." Aware that even the crew was concerned, Jacobsen
became "officially terrified." 

Perhaps her most unnerving moment came as the plane made its final
descent. With the flight attendants already strapped into their seats,
"... seven of the men stood up - in unison - and walked to the front and
back lavatories ... no one approached the men. 

A few rows back, Jacobsen observed a woman crying on a man's shoulder. 

Jacobsen's piece first gained visibility on the Internet, where it was
mass e-mailed, posted on bulletin-board-like blogs and discussed at
length. 

It acquired a life of its own, fueled in part by the lack of information
initially provided by the airlines or government agencies involved. 

Northwest Airlines, for example, will not discuss the flight other than
to release a terse statement that the flight "landed normally," the
government agencies took "no punitive action" and that "in the interest
of security, we are not commenting further." 

But Jacobsen's account of what she saw has been corroborated by Dave
Adams, the spokesman for the Federal Air Marshal Service. 

Was nobody doing anything, as Jacobsen perceived it? Were the civil
liberties of the men being maintained while the safety of the passengers
and crew was compromised? 

Or were "these gentlemen kept under vigilant surveillance," by air
marshals and by a waiting retinue of FBI agents, marshals, and other law
enforcement personnel on the ground? Given what Adams describes as their
"suspicious behavior, which included using hand signals," were the air
marshals doing their jobs? 

The 14 men, all carrying Syrian passports, were interviewed by the
waiting agents. They were identified as members of a musical band, hired
to play at a San Diego casino. The bandleader has since been identified
as Nour Mehana, Syria's answer to Wayne Newton. 

And, Adams says, after checking the men against every security database,
they were released. The band played - and went home. 

In the end, nothing happened on Flight 327 - nothing but the revelation
that, 30,000 feet up, 14 Middle Eastern musicians can inspire terror and
paranoia for using the bathroom too often and smiling too little.


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