UA pilot return to OZ after bombing thread

I’m puzzled here. In a way I guess the pilot was right not to take any risk (he was certainly told to) and in an other hand , I guess we have are very close to paranoia :rolleyes:

My wife was in the air SYD – SFO that day about an hour ahead of UA840. I asked her about the BOB thing and she had never heard of an acronym for Bomb On Board. I rechecked with two friends, one a 4 striper and one an FO, neither had heard of BOB.

We all agreed that we would have assumed that a parent had marked a bag for their son Robert — just in case.

Then again it might have referred to the BBMF.

As usual, I feel that it was a gross over reaction. Then again ………. 😮

Interesting points there Steve, surely the military should be called in to handle these types of baggage screenings when a bomb is suspected ? Incredible though that you don’t need a real bomb anymore to cause chaos, panic and mayhem with airlines and airports. Just a paper bag woth “B O B” written on it does the trick.

If someone really planted a bomb on board would they bother leaving a note like that ?

Ground crew at Sydney Airport risked their lives when ordered to unload luggage from a plane forced back after a mid-air bomb scare, a union said today.
United Airlines flight 840 bound for Los Angeles returned to Sydney 90 minutes after take-off on Tuesday after a sick bag with the letters “B O B” written on it was found in a first-class toilet.
Flight crew believed the acronym might have stood for “bomb on board”. The plane was later declared safe.
NSW Transport Workers Union (TWU) spokesman Glenn Nightingale said six ground airport workers were ordered to drive to the end of the runway where the plane was isolated.
The workers unloaded luggage from the plane and also drove the mobile stairs out to the aircraft so passengers could disembark.
“As the workers went out there, fire brigade personnel, Australian Federal Police and other security people all physically backed away from the aircraft,” Mr Nightingale said.
“They (the ground crew) should have refused to offload this plane. They have not been trained; they have no skills to support them. There should have been an elite squad of federal police to strip this plane.
“There could have been a bomb on board and these guys were like the canaries down a mine shaft.”
His comment referred to a time when miners kept caged canaries in mine shafts – and if the birds went silent it signified poisonous air and danger.
Passengers’ luggage was immediately returned to the international terminal for rescreening in a move that had put other travellers and airport employees in danger, he said.
“Despite all the accolades about how well Tuesday’s incident was handled, the ground workers still have not been given any information, debriefing or support from their employer or airport authorities,” he said.
Mr Nightingale said there was a need for a co-ordinating authority to handle dangerous situations and provide training for personnel expected to get involved in such incidents.
“These guys have not been trained in anti-terrorism or bomb-on-board situations and should not have been anywhere near that plane,” he said.
The TWU has written to Prime Minister John Howard, Sydney Airport Corp Ltd and federal aviation authorities to request ground workers’ safety concerns be addressed.

Hijacking an airplane and gaining complete control of the airplane seems impossible to me since the new security afer 9/11. The question is why the new cockpit doors weren’t standard.
Is that a 777 or 747?

what the hell are you jibbering on about? There was no attempt to take control of this flight!

What actually happened was one of the passengers was using the toilet and found a sick bag with the letters B O B scrawled across it, the flight attendent reported it to the captain, and he took the letters as an acronym for Bomb on Board, so he returned to Sydney for a search of the plane

Hijacking an airplane and gaining complete control of the airplane seems impossible to me since the new security afer 9/11. The question is why the new cockpit doors weren’t standard.
Is that a 777 or 747?

SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) — A United Airlines flight has landed safely at Sydney airport after the pilot aborted the Los Angeles-bound flight following a security issue.

United Airlines flight 840 carrying 246 passengers and 18 crew was bound for Los Angeles but turned back to Sydney as a precautionary measure about 90 minutes after takeoff, a spokeswoman for Sydney Airport told CNN late Tuesday.

She said the aircraft left Sydney at 2.30 p.m. (00.30 a.m. ET) local time and returned at 5.50 p.m. (3.50 a.m. ET). She said the passengers were now in the process of leaving the plane.

She said there was no attempt to break into the cockpit, despite media reports to that effect.

The pilot had raised a “security issue”, she said, but gave no further details other than that the pilot chose to abort the flight and return to Sydney.

The aircraft, Flight UA840, is quarantined at the end of the runway at Sydney International Airport.

Sydney Airport has been shut down for the time being. The airport is at Code 3, its highest level of security alert.

An airport official quoted by local television station Sky TV said it was believed a letter claiming a bomb was aboard the flight was left at the terminal. Another report suggested a bomb threat was found on the aircraft.

The plane is being checked and a full investigation is underway.

At the weekend, a Europe-based terror group linked to al Qaeda threatened bloodshed on Australian soil.

The Tawhid Islamic group, in a statement posted on an Islamic extremist Web site, said that if Australian military forces did not leave Iraq, “we will shake the earth under your feet as we did in Indonesia”.

That is a reference to the October 2002 Bali bombings in which 202 people died, 88 of them Australians.

The group said the battle would be taken to Australia, saying “our arms are long and capable of reaching you”.