Suspicious items in an ex-NYPD cop's baggage yield's "chaos" in Kansas City. Sunday morning, a passenger who briefly worked as a New York City police officer years ago caused some commotion after trying to take some strange, unidentified items through security in his carry on at the Kansas City airport. From the AP: "Transportation security agents asked him if they could examine his bag and they detained him after he refused, airline and law enforcement officials said. The items tested negative for explosive materials, according to a statement from the Transportation Security Administration." Passengers were kept in the dark about the situation and one described the situation as "chaos." Lesson learned: If you're flying on September 11, please don't argue with the TSA.
Suspicious behavior from men "possibly posing as air marshals" leads to plane evacuation in St. Louis. In one of the more mysterious scares on September 11, a pilot ordered the evacuation and rescreening off all the passengers on a flight from St. Louis to Washington Dulles. "At the beginning of the flight, a man got out of the seat quickly and walked to the back of the airplane like he was sick or something," recounted Luke Stinson, one of the passengers. "It just seemed off at how urgent it seemed. It was just weird. When the captain came on to give the announcement, he seemed to get flustered." Stinson claims to have been told by a TSA official that two men were "possibly posing as air marshals," though the agency now denies this.
Suspicious bathroom behavior incident number 1. Two F-16s escorted a flight from Los Angeles to JFK after three passengers reportedly locked themselves in the bathroom. According to a sparse report from the Associated Press, the passengers "were still inside when the plane landed" and a "law enforcement official says it isn't thought to be terrorism." The TSA said that they decided to do the fighter jet escort "out of an abundance of caution."
Suspicious bathroom behavior incident number 2. Two more F-16s were called into action after two passengers who were spending "an extraordinarily long time in the lavatory" on a flight from Denver. After the plane made an emergency landing in Detroit, three passengers were taken into custody. According to some sources, there was some drinking involved: "Several sources tell NBC News that two, possibly three, passengers were drunk and refused to follow flight attendant instructions, making long and frequent visits to the lavatories." With the flight originating in Denver and everything, we're tempted to make a joke about the Mile High Club, but we've already established the fact that most September 11 jokes aren't funny.
Suspicious package in Brooklyn brings out the bomb squad. The New York Times's data wizard Nate Silver spent part of his Sunday live-tweeting a bomb scare in Brooklyn Heights. "They have a guy in a hazmat suit checking things out. Police seem pretty calm," said Silver noting that two blocks of Court Street had been shut down. "The building where they're looking at what is apparently a suspcious package, on NE corner of Court & Livingston, is nondescript." Within the hour, police were "beginning to pack up," and the street was open to pedestrians again soon thereafter. Silver echoed the common refrain, "Just an abundance of caution on NYPDs behalf" and included a couple of snapshots.