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Home Front: WoT
LA to KC Flight Disrupter Screaming Jihadi Death Threats
2011-10-19
Somewhere in the heavens above Amarillo, angry shouts rang out from the back of Southwest Airlines Flight 3683.

"You're all going to die," a man dressed in black screamed at passengers Tuesday afternoon. "You're all going to hell. Allahu Akbar," translated as God is great in Arabic.

Federal authorities arrested Ali Reza Shahsavari, 29, of Indialantic, Fla., onboard the Boeing 737 after pilots made an emergency landing at Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport at 3:30 p.m. He is being held in the Randall County jail on a federal charge of interfering with a flight crew.
Note that the name is Persian...
None of the 136 passengers and five crew members on the flight from Los Angeles to Kansas City was hurt, said Brad Hawkins, spokesman for Dallas-based Southwest.

Police said the incident began with Shahsavari arguing with another passenger. The flight crew separated the men, said Amarillo police Cpl. Jerry Neufeld.

Shahsavari went into a bathroom and yelled obscenities from the rear of the plane, said passenger Doug Oerding, of Sacramento, Calif. Attendants tried to calm Shahsavari before a female flight attendant finally succeeded in quieting him. Oerding said.

As the tension mounted, the aircraft began to gain speed and descend, Oerding said. The slender Navy veteran said he put his shoes back on in preparation to act.

"All of us guys were looking at him like, 'Are we going to have to do something?'" Oerding said after finishing a cigarette outside the Amarillo terminal while waiting to reboard the plane.
A pack, not a herd...
Amarillo Aviation Director Patrick Rhodes said an emergency call was placed about 3:30 p.m. to the control tower at Rick Husband. The caller initially reported a male passenger was attempting to break into the cockpit, Rhodes said. Amarillo police said the call came from the cockpit.

"He was being disruptive and unruly on the flight, but he was not specifically trying to break into the cockpit," Rhodes said.

When the plane reached a gate at the airport, police boarded it and arrested Shahsavari without incident, Neufeld said.

"He was waiting at the door when we went in," Neufeld said. "He cooperated with officers."

FBI Special Agent Mark White, based in Dallas, said the event did not appear to be an act of terrorism. He described Shahsavari as a U.S. citizen who might have experienced an episode of mental illness.
That's some great FBI deduction at work, there, Agent White. Were you able to determine if he was a Muslim or not?
Posted by:Anonymoose

#8  Has big sis blamed it on TEA partiers yet?

Posted by: CrazyFool   2011-10-19 18:37  

#7  "He fell down. Thirty-five times."
Posted by: mojo   2011-10-19 17:33  

#6  as in that it their first priority before investigation of the facts at all.
Posted by: abu do you love   2011-10-19 15:09  

#5  one is sure that the FBI and DHS are readying a statement that this has nothing to do with terrorism.
Posted by: abu do you love   2011-10-19 14:50  

#4  Â“All of us guys were looking at him like, ‘Are we going to have to do something?’” You mean like throw him off the plane at 30,000 feet?
Posted by: JohnQC   2011-10-19 14:27  

#3  Â“All of us guys were looking at him like, ‘Are we going to have get to do something?’”

Fixed if for ya, Doug. No charge.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305   2011-10-19 13:39  

#2  It's published, Anguper Hupomosing9418. :-)
Posted by: trailing wife   2011-10-19 13:29  

#1  There was a weird incident in San Antonio this am with 5 characters id'd as 'Muslim'. I submitted an article.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418   2011-10-19 13:16  

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