September 09, 2004

Annie Jacobsen’s “Terror in the Skies” Report Appears to be Confirmed by New Airline Regulations

I was flying from Dallas to Burbank on American Airlines yesterday. The crew informed us that there were some new regulations in effect. The lavatory at the front of the plane could only be used by passengers in the front compartment of the plane; the lavatory at the back of the plane could only be used by passengers in the back compartment of the plane.

Not surprisingly, as a participant in the blogosphere, I was familiar with relevant information that wasn’t available to some of the other passengers on the flight.

I asked a stewardess if these new regulations had anything to do with the strange behavior on the part of Syrian airline passengers on a particular flight, that had been reported a month or so ago.

She said, “Yes. They’re up to something. We think it’s because the front lavatory is near the cockpit. We think they’re trying to get into the cockpit from the lavatory. We have new rules. We can’t let two people into one lavatory anymore, or let people take bags into the lavatory.”

At the time of Annie Jacobsen’s orginal report of the behavior of Syrian airline passengers on her flight, there were questions about the conclusions she had drawn. Many others provided data and observations supporting Jacobsen.

The new regulations appear to show that the airines have seen multiple examples of the kind of behavior reported by Jacobsen, and are taking it seriously indeed.