-
- Interesting that the Pentagon was not involved in the
briefings this time, no? It was only a "foreign airline" I
guess?
One that fell from the sky at a rate that EXCEEDED
"terminal velocity"
by a significant rate of
acceleration...
-
- JFK Jr's plane had 3 non-military passengers aboard.
Yet, THE
PENTAGON HANDLED THAT BRIEFING!
-
- Hmmm. I wonder why?
-
- Informant describes
plastic bomb
-
- In a Sept. 24 "information circular," a copy
of which was obtained by the AP, the FAA said several U.S. agencies
received
a warning by letter in August "that a bomb or explosive
device with
`spiral expansion' would soon be used on a flight departing
from either
Los Angeles airport or New York's JFK
airport."
-
- The circular said the informant "identified himself
as
Luciano Porcari," and noted that "an individual with this
same name hijacked an Iberian Boeing 727 during a flight from Barcelona
to Palma de Mallorca, Spain, on March 14, 1977," before being
overpowered
and arrested.
-
- The alert said the writer said "three of these
devices
were smuggled into the United States between 1992 and 1993, and
that the
devices cannot be detected on a metal detector because of the
PVC (plastic)
composition."
-
- The alert was in effect until
Oct. 30. EgyptAir Flight
990 departed Los Angeles on Saturday, Oct. 30,
and stopped at John F. Kennedy
International Airport, bound for Cairo.
The plane took off from JFK at
1:19 a.m. Sunday en route to Cairo and
disappeared from radar screens about
40 minutes later.
-
- At a news conference
in Cairo, the head of EgyptAir,
Mohammed Fahim Rayan, said he had no
information of any direct threat against
his airline.
-
- Last month, the FAA
offered no comment on its alert.
-
- "The FAA often sends out
information on threats
to ensure that airlines can properly implement
security measures,"
agency spokeswoman Rebecca Trexler said at the
time.
-
- "We do want to assure the public that the FAA works
with
law enforcement and intelligence agencies of the United States and
other countries and we closely evaluate all threats and take appropriate
security measures as warranted," Trexler added.
-
- Eight Bombs Made,
Three In Circulation
-
- The FAA circular said a Luciano
Porcariwas sentenced
to 10 years in prison on Jan. 25, 1979, but later
escaped. In August 1981,
he threatened to hijack another aircraft
unless he was paid $250,000. He
was subsequently arrested in Italy and
sentenced to nine years in prison
on Jan. 27, 1982. The circular said
he was released on Aug. 12, 1982.
-
- In the warning received by
letter "to several U.S.
government agencies," the informant
"claimed that between 1975
and 1983 eight of the devices were
manufactured, that only three remained
and that one was in the
U.S.
-
- He
also said he had warned various U.S. authorities about
the device
before the July 1996 explosion of TWA Flight 800 off Long Island
and
the September 1998 crash of Swissair Flight 111 off Newfoundland.
-
- The TWA plane had
taken off from Kennedy airport en route
to Paris, while the Swissair
plane had taken off from Kennedy en route
to Geneva.
-
- After an extensive
investigation, authorities ruled out
a criminal act in the TWA crash.
They now believe there was an explosion
for an undetermined reason in
the plane's center fuel tank.
-
- The Swissair plane crashed 16 minutes after the pilots
reported smoke in the cockpit. Authorities have not determined a cause
but are focusing on the airplane's wiring and insulation material.
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