Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

d01100100 t1_jc421jv wrote

> Authorities searched the plane and its 65 passengers with bomb-sniffing dogs, one of the passengers, State Senate President Pro Tem Phil Baruth, told WCAX-TV.

> The passengers were able to deplane after sitting on the tarmac for almost two hours, Baruth said. Video from WCAX showed emergency personnel lining up the baggage on the ground in front of the aircraft before searching each piece.

So passengers were kept in the plane on the tarmac for two hours with a possible bomb threat?

181

Tangurena t1_jc6wan4 wrote

I lived in Ireland during "The Troubles". This sort of thing was common. Another way of dealing with bomb threats was drive the plane away from the terminal, down a taxiway and then make everyone get off the plane, take all the luggage out of the plane and then make everyone identify their suitcases. If there was a suitcase left over, everyone and every suitcase got off the plane again. If the suitcase was still there the second time, the Army took the suitcase and blew it up.

In Belfast, you left your shopping bags outside of stores (because the IRA would hide bombs in shopping bags and leave them to explode inside stores). No one would steal your bags because they might be bombs.

20

jbob88 t1_jc62a5x wrote

That's a fair question but how else would you go about searching for a device? If you evacuate everyone, it would be really easy for the culprit to slink away in the chaos.

8

[deleted] t1_jc7xw94 wrote

That happened to me back in 2013. We had suspicious people on our flight who were refusing to sit down the entire trip. Pilot received a bomb threat. They flew us and landed us at our destination and taxied the plane all the way out in the middle of the tarmac. SWAT showed up and surrounded the plane and searched all the undercarriage bags and one by one search us as they de boarded us. Then they put us on a bus and released us at the airport.

6