American Airlines flight lands due to letter opener

[Soap]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...e=5&u=/nm/20030730/ts_nm/japan_plane_knife_dc

American Air Crew Mistook Letter-Opener for Knife
Wed Jul 30, 5:47 AM ET

TOKYO (Reuters) - An American Airlines plane made an emergency landing in Tokyo on Wednesday after crew mistook a letter-opener found on board for a knife, Japanese police said.



The captain of American Airlines flight 167, bound from New York's John F. Kennedy airport for Tokyo's Narita, requested an emergency landing at Narita after a crew member came across the object, a police official said.

The metal letter-opener, with a 2-inch long retractable blade, and a cigarette lighter built in at the other end, was found in a room for crew members near the cockpit.

"We are not treating this as a crime. No laws have been broken," another police official said.

When asked if the object could have been used as a weapon, he said: "The blade is rather short, so I don't know how effective it would be."

The object sparked concern after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warned the airline industry last weekend that Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network is planning new suicide hijackings and bombings in the United States or abroad.

 

[TallPine]

The metal letter-opener, with a 2-inch long retractable blade, and a cigarette lighter built in at the other end, was found in a room for crew members near the cockpit.

Yeah, the pilot might hold the blade to his own throat to hijack the plane

(like the scene in "Blazing Saddles")

 

[Leatherneck]

"The blade is rather short, so I don't know how effective it would be."

Like a box-cutter, right?

TC
TFL Survivor

 

[SAWBONES]

It's ridiculously expensive to land a commercial airline flight "off plan".

I don't understand an "emergency landing" just because someone found a silly unclaimed "covert knife" type of item on the plane. There was no obvious terrorist threat or aggressive action going on.

This would seem to be another example of threat-exaggeration and paranoia similar in degree to that which expels little boys from Elementary School for pointing a finger and saying "bang! bang!" to playmates in the schoolyard.

Unbelievably dumb.

 

[Felonious Monk]

Hadn't these pilots gone through firearms training? Weren't they carrying?
DOH!!!

 

[Greg L]

Hadn't these pilots gone through firearms training? Weren't they carrying?

Probably not on an international flight .

I do agree that it is silly to divert a flight to the same airport that they were going to anyway over a knife (barely) that was in nobody's hands but the crew.

sheep.

Greg

 

[Sleeping Dog]

flight 167, bound from New York's John F. Kennedy airport for Tokyo's Narita, requested an emergency landing at Narita

The requested an emergency landing at the airport that was their destination? Did they just want "cuts" in front of the line to land? Or did they just want to taxi to a far corner and get surrounded by japanese swat teams?

I hope they got the runway covered with foam, just to make a big splash.

All this for a letter opener, or even for a small knife? Found in the crew's area? This is moronic beyond words.


Regards.

 

[Gordon Fink]

The end is near …

~G. Fink

 

[4v50 Gary]

Let's see, they recover the object, ID the object and then decide to land the plane? Were they afraid of finding nail clippers with a file on it or some woman's tweasers for her eyebrows too?