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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| The Animal-Skin Merchant’s Explanation for Missing His Flights |
| 2004-02-09 |
| An Indian Muslim, at the centre of a terrorism scare on trans-Atlantic flights, is an innocent leather-garment exporter. The man, whose full name is Abdul Haye Mohammad Illyas, is based in the southern Indian city of Madras with business interests in the United States and Europe -- which requires frequent air travel, Indian investigators said.... The suspicions of international intelligence agencies seemed confirmed when Illyas failed to show up for the flight to Los Angeles, which was ultimately cancelled at the request of Washington due to fears of an attack. A similar alert was re-issued by Air France on January 7, informing the US and French intelligence that Illyas was booked on Paris-Los Angeles flight four days later. He had been expected to land in Paris January 7 on an Air France flight from Bombay and had a reservation on January 11 for an onward flight to Los Angeles. But this time too, Illyas failed to arrive at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris where French police were waiting for him to check his identity.... According to the Indian Express newspaper, Illyas had won frequent flier tickets for travel on the Paris-Los Angeles sector. When Air France asked him for his dates of travel, Illyas randomly chose December 24 without really intending to use the ticket, the paper quoted family members as saying. This explanation doesn’t make any sense to me. Can anyone here explain it? |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |
| #2 Wait, doesn't this guy own a cellphone? He was supposed to be in England at a trade show, according to his family. I thought that comment was odd at that time because all they had to do was call him. What trade show, where and where was Scotland Yard to check up on him? This thing's 6 weeks old. He shows up now? And why didn't he just decline the tickets if he didn't intend to use them? |
| Posted by: Anonymous2U 2004-2-9 11:16:07 PM |
| #1 Sounds perfectly logical and reasonable to me. He seems to have real papers, so since it is a zero-sum game, his timing is off on airline schedules, which freaked out security. A name like Abdul Haye Mohammad Illyas who does not show is a bad thing to have happen. His background will have to be checked out closely to see if his excuse is real, or is a bunch of BS. Maybe Air Phrog will be insisting on asking questions of their passengers in the future to prevent cancelling flights. Maybe they can learn from El Al (nah...never happen...). |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-2-9 8:41:40 PM |