Troublemakers and innocents caught in panic

By ALAN PERROTT and CHRIS GRAY OF THE INDEPENDENT

Paranoia over safety has never been higher on commercial airliners, but there is little anyone can do to combat the rogue passenger bent on causing trouble.

An Oklahoma man is awaiting trial in the Manukau District Court after being arrested over a bomb hoax on an Air New Zealand flight.

There has been a rash of similar security alerts since September 11.

These include a British police inspector who was barred from a flight to Crete after he joked to security staff at Manchester Airport that he had a bomb in his bag.

Police were called and although the motorway patrol officer apologised, he was not allowed to board the aircraft and now faces a police investigation.

A 59-year-old American businessman was arrested with four box-cutting knives like those the hijackers used when he tried to board a flight from Philadelphia to Minneapolis.

He said he was trying to show his wife and America how terrorism was still easy. He has since been barred from flying.

Auckland psychologist Sara Chatwin says such incidents are usually fuelled by alcohol, but they become more sinister if they are caused by attention-seekers and the power hungry.

"There are always people who will see traumatic and well-publicised events as an opportunity to feel powerful and exert power. They are attention-seekers who want to stand out in the crowd.

"Often there can be a copycat element to their behaviour, but they are not usually in the same leagueas those they are aping."

Ms Chatwin said medical professionals could minimise such incidents by keeping a check on at-risk patients and ensuring they were keeping up with any medication.

There have been other incidents that can be attributed to official paranoia.

Police had to intervene when a Northwest Airlines pilot became enraged after airport security confiscated his fingernail clippers and scissors before he boarded a flight at Rapid City, Dakota. The flight left with him at the controls.

A plane was held on the runway at Dulles Airport in Washington after a Saudi Arabian pilot asked to sit in the cockpit, a common pilot privilege before September 11. Despite the FBI saying he was no threat, the crew insisted he be transferred to another flight, while many passengers refused to fly with him.

Also at Dulles, a flight attendant on a Northwest Airlines jet bound for Amsterdam became suspicious about a passenger and telephoned a friend. The friend called the FBI, who then called the airport, which sent agents and police to board the plane.

The two pilots and a flight engineer then escaped from their cockpit on rope ladders. The flight eventually took off after 23 hours' delay and no threat was discovered.

An Air Canada aircraft heading for Toronto returned to Los Angeles with an escort of two US Air Force F-16 fighter jets after a passenger became unruly when he was told to stop smoking in the lavatory and started making "anti-American" threats. The air crew subdued him but the pilot made the decision to fly back to the departure airport.

- INDEPENDENT

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