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  • Mid-air terror: All detained in Amsterdam are Indians

    Mid-air terror: All detained in Amsterdam are Indians

    All 12 people detained in Amsterdam following a security alert on a US airliner were Mumbai-born, Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma said on Thursday.

    "We have got the list of the 12 people. They all were born in Mumbai. Nobody has been arrested as per the latest information but detentions are there," Sharma said.

    The Indian embassy in Amsterdam has been given consular access to the detained people, who all had addresses in Mumbai, he said.

    "We have to ascertain and get the details. They are all from Mumbai and they all have Mumbai addresses," Sharma said. It was, however, not known how many of them were carrying Indian passports.

    Northwest Airlines flight No 42 from Minneapolis to Mumbai was escorted to Amsterdam's Schipol airport on Wednesday by two F-16 fighters after its crew reported some passengers had displayed "behaviour of concern".

    Soon after, Dutch authorities reported that 12 people had been detained for questioning.

    http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/1...1302420000.htm

  • #2
    This is already the second incident in 10 days time here at Schiphol Airport, last week we were evacuated for 30 minutes from our offices due a security alert.

    Comment


    • #3
      US plane bound for India turned back to Amsterdam

      US plane bound for India turned back to Amsterdam

      Twelve passengers were arrested from a Mumbai-bound Northwest Airlines flight that returned to Amsterdam's Schiphol airport after the pilot raised an alert over worrying behaviour, the Dutch ANP news agency reported.

      The plane was flying with 149 passengers on board when what the pilot called "behaviour of concern" prompted him to return to Amsterdam.

      The jet, flying over Germany at the time, was escorted back to Amsterdam by two Dutch F-16s as soon as it entered Dutch air space.

      "Northwest is cooperating with the appropriate government officials. Flight 42 is cancelled for today, but will be travelling to Mumbai tomorrow. Passengers are being accommodated at local hotels," the company said.

      The flight, NW0042, will now leave Amsterdam at 9 am local time on Thursday, and land in Mumbai at 8.30 pm IST, 22 hours behind schedule, an executive in the US-owned airline's office at Mumbai airport said.

      Flight NW0041, scheduled to leave Mumbai for Amsterdam at 12.30 am on Thursday has, as a result, been "delayed" by 46 hours- it will now leave at 10.30 pm on Friday.

      Schiphol airport spokesperson Katherine Gerneuoen would not confirm the number of Indian passengers on board, or if any of those being questioned were Indians. Flight NW0042 is widely preferred for being the first among the flights from Europe to reach Mumbai.

      Comment


      • #4
        damn... I swear... if they are found guilty... thats going to be real sad... they have got to be some sick bastards trying to wage war against their own country!!!
        Cow is the only animal that not only inhales oxygen, but also exhales it.
        -Rekha Arya, Former Minister of Animal Husbandry

        Comment


        • #5
          12 detained in Amsterdam are Indians

          12 detained in Amsterdam are Indians

          http://www.ibnlive.com/news/us-fligh...s/19536-2.html

          New Delhi: The 12 passengers who were detained from a Mumbai-bound flight that was first stopped and then taken back to Amsterdam on Wednesday are of Indian origin.


          They all have cited Mumbai localities as their home addresses. All the passengers have Indian passport.


          The 12 were taken off a Northwest Airlines flight after the plane was intercepted over Germany and taken back to Amsterdam airport by Dutch F-16s.


          Dutch prosecutors will decide within three days whether to press charges against them.


          The name of the detained passengers are Batliwala Mohammed Iqbal , Batliwala Noor Mohammed , Memom Yusuf Hazi Gaffar , Yusuf Mohammad , Imran Mohammad , Shakeel Usman Chotani , Suhail Abdul Aziz Nijami , Ayub Qadir , Sajid Qadir , Mustafa Gulam , Ayub Khan and Mohammad Qasravi Hasan .

          Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma said that the Ministry of External Affairs has got in touch with the mission at The Hague.


          He said: “Nobody has been arrested, but we have information that 12 people have been detained. At this point we cannot confirm how many of them carry Indian passports. But we know that all of them are born in Mumbai.”


          Meanwhile two flights from Amsterdam to Mumbai have been cancelled.


          The incident was not terrorism-related, the Dutch state broadcaster said on Thursday, citing the Justice Minister.


          Wednesday's flight was escorted back to Schiphol Airport by Dutch fighter jets after the crew of the DC-10 became suspicious of some of the passengers, and 12 people aboard were detained.


          But NOS news quoted Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner as saying there were no signs of a terrorist threat aboard the flight.
          Last edited by gilgamesh; 24 Aug 06,, 18:25.

          Comment


          • #6
            It appears that the terrorists have now been able to subvert Indian Moslems too.

            Very sad.

            What have they done or what were the planning?

            Neo,

            You are in Amsterdam and you are in the airlines.

            What's up?


            "Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."

            I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.

            HAKUNA MATATA

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by Ray
              It appears that the terrorists have now been able to subvert Indian Moslems too.

              Very sad.

              What have they done or what were the planning?
              Sir,
              Could there be a SIMI connection here?

              Neo,

              You are in Amsterdam and you are in the airlines.

              What's up?
              Dutch Airport Authorities have been very reluctant in releasing info, all I have here is what I got from the colleagues who were at the gate.
              Flight was enroute to Mumbai and already into the German airospace when these 12 passengers all grabbed their handluggage simultaniously and took out their cell phones and passed them to eachother.
              As the plane was still climbing to its set altitude and course the 'fasten your seatbelt' sign was on.
              Once a few of the named passengers left their seats the Air Marshals on board took action and informed the Captain who deceided to return to Schiphol Airport and asked for Air Escort.

              Funny thing is that the aircraft returned to regular gates instead of the secured 'Buffer' we have for emergency landings!
              No regular staff was allowed at the gate!

              At this moment its looking like an unfortunate misunderstanding rather than a terrorist plot.
              Since we had a bomb alert a few days back at BA counter in Terminal Three, I guess the authorities are taking it serious.
              There's no incleased sercurity alert though, I had a 'normal' working day without too many delays.

              Comment


              • #8
                Silly chaps to do such unusual movements.

                One can't say SIMI or whatever.

                If indeed they are dangerous, then it will be a sad day for India.

                True that foreign money and organisations wedded to terrorism has inflitrated into India, but such blatant stuff (if they are terrorists) has not been observed i.e. terrorist like action in full view of the public!

                That is if indeed they are terrorists.

                All this surely won't be making your job any easier.

                Baad se Badnaam bura (it is worse to be defamed than being bad)!


                "Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."

                I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.

                HAKUNA MATATA

                Comment


                • #9
                  12 arrested on U.S. plane to be released

                  By TOBY STERLING, Associated Press Writer
                  41 minutes ago

                  HAARLEM, Netherlands - Prosecutors said Thursday they found no evidence of a terrorist threat aboard a Northwest Airlines flight to India that returned to Amsterdam, and they are releasing all 12 passengers arrested after the emergency landing.

                  The men, all Indian nationals, had aroused suspicions on Flight NW0042 to Bombay because they had a large number of cell phones, lap tops and hard drives, and refused to follow the crew's instructions, prosecutors said.

                  Because of those actions by the passengers, the pilot of the DC-10 radioed for help shortly after takeoff Wednesday and the plane was escorted back to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport by two Dutch fighter jets. The 12 were arrested after the plane landed.

                  U.S. air marshals on the flight also were suspicious of the men, U.S. officials and passengers said.

                  "A thorough investigation of the cell phones in the plane found that the phones were not manipulated and no explosives were found on board the plane," said a statement from the prosecutor's office in Haarlem, which has jurisdiction over the airport.

                  "From the statements of the suspects and the witnesses, no evidence could be brought forward that these men were about to commit an act of violence," the statement said.

                  The men were to be released later Thursday from a dention center at the airport and free to leave the Netherlands, prosecution spokesman Ed Hartjes said.

                  The incident reflected the jitters that persist in the airline industry in the two weeks since British police revealed an alleged plot to blow up several U.S.-bound airliners simultaneously using bombs crafted from ordinary consumer goods.

                  Hartjes said the electronic equipment the suspects possessed could have been enough to trigger an explosion, and he defended the flight crew's response. "This was a correct reaction under the circumstances," he said.

                  In New Delhi, Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said he had no comment.

                  Hartjes said 11 of the men had been traveling together, catching a connecting flight in Amsterdam from a South American country that he refused to identify. The 12th aroused suspicion for other unspecified reasons, he said. He refused to give personal details about any of them.

                  Passengers described the men as between 25 and 35 years old and speaking Urdu, the language commonly spoken in Pakistan and by many of India's Muslims. Some had beards, and some wore a shalwar kameez, a long shirt and baggy pants commonly worn by South Asian Muslims.

                  The Algemeen Dagblad newspaper quoted an unidentified 31-year-old Dutch businessman as saying the suspects were walking up and down the isle after takeoff.

                  "I saw the air marshals walking, and then you know something's wrong," it quoted him as saying.

                  Nitin Patel of Boston, who sat behind the men, told the paper: "I don't know how close we were, but my gut tells me these people wanted to hijack the airplane."

                  The mass-circulation De Telegraaf reported that passenger Sarat Menon quoted the men as saying they were returning from a vacation in Tobago.

                  "It wasn't immediately clear what was going on. There was no panic. A flight attendant told us to remain seated and to follow the air marshals' orders," Menon said.

                  The Northwest captain radioed Amsterdam seeking permission to return with a military escort, and jet fighters were scrambled from a northern military air field.

                  The national anti-terrorism office said it saw no reason to raise the country's threat level.

                  In a recording of air control communications, the pilot declined an offer to put fire engines on standby for the unscheduled landing at Schiphol.

                  The security alert was the latest of several incidents reported since the alleged terrorism plot was revealed in London. On Friday, a British plane made an emergency landing in southern Italy after a bomb scare, and the U.S. Air Force scrambled jets to escort a United Airlines flight from London to Washington as it was diverted to Boston.

                  On Tuesday, a flight to New York from Atlanta was diverted to Charlotte, N.C., after a flight attendant found a bottle of water and then smelled something suspicious on the plane. Officials found nothing hazardous.

                  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060824/...plane_diverted

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                  • #10
                    All 16 have been set free ;) .

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Good news.


                      "Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."

                      I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.

                      HAKUNA MATATA

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Its a relief indeed!

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          GOI is not amused :

                          India lodges protest at treatment of Indians detained in Amsterdam

                          To be fair to the Dutch, they seem to be suitably contrite :

                          Dutch regret detention of Indians

                          Perhaps reports of this nature prompted GOI summoning the Dutch Ambassador :

                          Indians were treated inhumanely: Dutch passenger

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Hari_Om
                            GOI is not amused :

                            India lodges protest at treatment of Indians detained in Amsterdam

                            To be fair to the Dutch, they seem to be suitably contrite :

                            Dutch regret detention of Indians

                            Perhaps reports of this nature prompted GOI summoning the Dutch Ambassador :

                            Indians were treated inhumanely: Dutch passenger

                            What happened on board flight NW042

                            Vipin Vijayan in Mumbai | August 25, 2006 03:58 IST
                            Last Updated: August 25, 2006 15:03 IST




                            Nineteen-year-old Karan Singh landed in Mumbai more than 24 hours behind schedule. But he wasn't peeved at the delay. Instead, he was relieved. For Singh, a passenger in the Northwest Airlines flight NW042, a 48-hour ordeal had come to an end.

                            He was among some 18 passengers who had arrived in Mumbai on Thursday night after their flight was grounded in Amsterdam and subsequently cancelled.

                            The behaviour of a group of passengers aroused suspicion among the crew, who alerted Dutch officials on ground. Soon, two Dutch F-16s were out on the skies and escorted the flight back to Amsterdam.

                            Though he did not witness the drama that took place inside the aircraft, Singh said the authorities handled the entire operation well.

                            "We were told that the aircraft had some technical problem because of which it would land at the Schiphol airport in Amsterdam. But upon landing there, it became clear that the reason given to us was not true. Armed commandos had surrounded the aircraft and the presence of fighter jets made it clear that something was wrong," he says.

                            Among others on board the ill-fated flight was Central Industrial Security Force Deputy Commandant (Retd) Umesh Prasad Behera.

                            Behera says the air marshals did what they ought to have done. The group of 12 passengers was not heeding the instructions of the stewardesses, who had asked them to switch off their mobile phones and to remain seated. As their pleas fell on deaf ears, the stewardesses had to alert the air marshal, Behera said.

                            "As an educated passenger I had asked them not to use the lavatory while the plane was taking off, but they did not listen," he said.

                            The air marshal tactfully used sign language to call out the erring passengers so as not to create panic among the other 148 passengers on board the aircraft, he added.

                            However, Behera said the situation on the ground could have been handled better.

                            "There were a number of delays with regard to inquiry into the incident. These days, enquiry has to be quick. There was further delay with regard to lodging for the passengers. Nobody was there to take care of the passengers when the aircraft was at the airport." he said.

                            A few others felt that the situation during the flight and on the ground had been handled well. A Northwest Airlines crewmember, who preferred to be anonymous, said once it was informed over the passenger announcement system that the aircraft would land shortly, the marshals took over. According to him, the passengers were comfortable.
                            Nitin and Kiran Dalal too were among the passengers who reached Mumbai. They said that the 12 passengers who were detained were passing around their mobile phones despite having been instructed to switch them off.

                            "They were moving around. Nobody moves around the aircraft soon after take off. Other passengers were frightened by their actions. As soon as we landed, some uniformed men took them in handcuffs," Kiran said.

                            "We were not informed about why we had landed in Amsterdam. I think they said it was a mechanical failure. We were all very suspicious. We knew something was wrong and that something was going on. Soon, the cabins and the area under the seats were scanned maybe for explosives. We didn't know. While waiting in the aircraft, we were not allowed to use the bathroom. We could not talk to each other. It was very confusing," she added.

                            Stewart Nicol confirmed what the Dalals had narrated.

                            Looking to put the harrowing 48 hours behind him, Nicol said the passengers were told that they will be briefed upon landing at Amsterdam.

                            All they said was that there was some sort of mechanical problem with the plane, he said.

                            He however denied having seen anything suspicious. Everybody was just calm, he said.

                            http://us.rediff.com/news/2006/aug/25plane1.htm
                            Last edited by gilgamesh; 25 Aug 06,, 14:37.

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                            • #15
                              The issue at hand is not about “what they ought to have done”.

                              The issue was the manner in which it was done.

                              No BS can be tolerated from a country who have been lax enough to reach a situation where their Citizens have tried to terminate Indian lives, with “extreme prejudice”, in India ( See this link).

                              I trust, consequently, that you will view the above opinion from an Indian citizen, as not being entirely off the wall. Granted off course it only pertains to India ;) . I have no view about Aruban or Zimbabwean Citizens involved in the unpleasantness ;) .
                              Last edited by Hari_Om; 25 Aug 06,, 19:02.

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