Five Foreign Nationals Released from Custody

Air Marshal Training Center
Photo from Federal Air Marshal
Association
What started out as a routine flight for American Airlines Flight 1874 turned out to be an exciting ending for more than 120 passengers and air crew at Newark Liberty International Airport.

Flight attendants and passengers apparently noticed five passengers speaking in foreign languages with some type of "aircraft flight materials" during their flight from Dallas Fort Worth International. The Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS) Agent aboard the flight was contacted and an alert went out.

When Flight 1874 arrived on Saturday afternoon, the five foreign aviation students, four Angolans and one Israeli, were detained, until their stories were checked out. Apparently the five were returning from a helicopter training school in Texas and had their study material with them on their flight.

Imagine being seated near five guys speaking in foreign languages looking a flight training materials. One would have to be suspicious at that scenario.

After the plane landed at Newark, the five were placed in custody and taken away by security personnel. One passenger later interviewed on television indicated that he was not aware of the possible in-flight emergency, but, witnessed the men being placed in handcuffs and taken away when the plane landed. The passenger indicated that all luggage was off loaded checked on the tarmac by explosive detection dogs and security personnel before the passengers left.

Bravo Zulu (a time-honored maritime signal meaning "Well Done") to the in-flight air crew and the Federal Air Marshal for their professionalism in handling a potential serious incident.

From Wikipedia:

The Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS) is a United States federal government law enforcement agency. It was founded by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 1968 to combat the rash of hijackings occurring during the 1960s and early 1970s. Its mission is to safeguard flights against aircraft hijacking ("skyjacking") and all other forms of crimes in or around commercial aircraft.

Under the Homeland Security Act of 2002, air marshals were transferred to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In 2005, DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff ordered the realignment of the FAMS from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to a division within the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

TSA is also proposing to expand the use of Federal Air Marshals within the entire public transit sector. In a pilot program announced in December 2005 the TSA stated they will implement a program to have air marshals cover buses, light rail, passenger rail systems and ferries across the country. (Additional Source: Washington Post)

We are lucky that this happened on the weekend when most of the liberal news bloodhounds of the mainstream media (MSM) were asleep or out doing whatever they do when they are off, otherwise we would have a bunch of anti-law enforcement rhetoric criticizing the situation and demanding ACLU to look into profiling.

Technorati tags: FAMS, Air Marshal, In-flight Safety, Airport Security, Aircraft Hijacking, Sky Marshal, FBI, Newark, Dallas - Fort Worth, Avaition Security, Flight 1874, TSA, Law Enforcement, Passenger Safety, MSM, Opinion