Hi,
In the reports I saw it was BA who made the decision to return to the UK. The
US apparently had suggested the flight land at Bangor, Maine but BA opted to
return to the UK.
While that does not resolve the main point it is perhaps a necessary
correction.
niall
P.S. I don't recall a UK-east coast USA flight taking as long as 9 hours,
rather shorter as I recall.
> Did anyone see the small paragraph in the papers this week on an incident re
> the US authorities who decided, when a plane flying from the UK to New York,
> was already halfway across the Atlantic, that a certain person who might
> have
> connections to mid-east terror groups wasn't welcome in the US. They ordered
> the flight to return to the UK so this person could be disembarked. UK police
> duly interviewed him on return, and decided no further action was necessary.
>
> Why could not the flight have been allowed to continue to the US and the
> offending passenger then be held until a flight back to the UK was available?
> Do
> the US authorities not believe their airports have adequate security for this
> sort of thing?
>
> I was not on this flight but would have been a little peeved to have suffered
> what must have been at least a 10-hour delay (its around 9 hours flight time
> UK-New York), for the caprices of the US immigration authorities. The cost of
> sending the flight back must have been quite large, in terms of fuel cost,
> crew time etc. Also the extra greenhouse emmissions involved (I know GWBush
> is
> very concerned at that). Then we have the total man-hours wasted by that 10
> hour
> delay, times the number of passengers, say 300 probably, not to mention extra
> hours wasted by persons meeting that flight at N-York.
>
> It would be interesting to know the legal rights to recover costs incurred by
> the rejected, but (according to UK authorities innocent) person, the
> passengers, and the airline. Or will a large part of these costs end up as
> insurance
> payouts, i.e paid by us all, ultimately?
>
> Hillary Shaw, Geography, Unievrsitry of Leeds,
> www.fooddeserts.org
>
> > * What is the role of borders, or how have policies on borders changed,
> > since
> > 9/11 as regards for instance terrorism and refugees, communication and
> > information, exportation/importation of commodities, artifacts, drugs or
> > weapons?
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