Woman Who Caused London-to-D.C. Flight to Be Diverted Facing Federal Charges (Updated and bumped) Contributed by Bill Faith
BOSTON — A 59-year-old Vermont woman faced federal charges Thursday for interfering with a flight crew, after her outburst on a London-to-Washington flight prompted a massive security scare and raised questions about the thoroughness of passenger screening.
Catherine Mayo, of Braintree, Vt., muttered incoherently, occasionally saying "Pakistan," as she paced up and down the aisle of United Flight 923 on Wednesday, ...
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I'm not real sure whether she deserves jail time or a padded room but something needs to be done to keep her off the streets.
*** Update and bump. Original time stamp 2006.08.17.11:36
There's something happening here Karol Sheinin
The woman that disrupted the London-NY flight on Wednesday .
The word is that , although her circumstances are more than a little suspicious:
Ms. Mayo’s 31-year-old son, Josh, told reporters in Vermont that his mother was a peace activist who had been visiting a Pakistani pen pal and that she had just had a “bad time” on the flight. It is unclear how long she had been in Pakistan, but she worked as a journalist there, writing columns for the Daily Times of Pakistan, assailing the war and American political policy.
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Update, 11:37am: Reader DS Vet points out that she was lucid enough to understand that saying certain words would land her into trouble.
"She made reference to being with people associated with two words," the affidavit said. "She stated that she could not say what the two words were because the last time that she had said the two words she had been kicked off a flight in the United Arab Emirates."
[Read the whole thing .]
Contributed by Bill Faith on August 18, 2006 at 03:18 PM in , , , |