Category: AVIATION

On October 19, 2022, at approximately 7:30 in the morning, LA County Sheriff’s Narcotics Bureau Detectives and Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agents assigned to a task force at the Los Angeles International Airport seized approximately 12,000 suspected fentanyl pills. The suspect attempted to go through TSA screening with several bags of candy and miscellaneous snacks with the intent of boarding a plane. However, it was discovered that inside the Sweetarts, Skittles and Whoppers candy boxes were fentanyl pills and not candy. The suspect fled prior to being detained by law enforcement but has been identified and the investigation is on-going. The agency warned that with Halloween approaching, parents should make sure they are checking their kids candy and not allowing them to eat anything until it has been inspected by them. If you find anything in candy boxes that you believe might be narcotics, do not touch it and immediately notify your local law enforcement agency.

Two people were detained in connection with a possible explosive device found at Toronto’s Billy Bishop Airport Ferry Terminal October 21. The discovery prompted an evacuation of the airport. Operations at the airport were suspended. Toronto police said the two persons of interest were in custody and cooperating with the investigation. Officials at the airport notified police about a suspicious package at the ferry terminal on the mainland side. It was described as a potential explosive device, but according to Ports Toronto, which operates the airport, a “device” attached to a bicycle parked near the terminal was discovered. Police evacuated the ferry terminal and closed the pedestrian tunnel to the airport. The discovery of the device caused the closure of Billy Bishop Airport for the rest of the day. In a subsequent statement Saturday evening, the port authority said the incident led to two Air Canada flights diverting to Hamilton. They added that the runway had closed for the evening. “We’re doing our best to investigate that angle and learn what they know as quickly as we can,” said Acting Insp. Jason Albanese at the scene. Police tweeted that a controlled explosion was being conducted in the area and residents could hear a “loud bang.”

After being forcibly removed from an airplane for asking passengers who appeared to her to be Latino whether they were smuggling drugs, a niece of the former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie bit, kicked and spit on Jefferson Parish sheriff’s deputies who were trying to detain her authorities said. The incident happened Thanksgiving Day at Louis Armstrong International Airport. Shannon Epstein, 25, boarded the Spirit Airlines flight to New Jersey and asked a family who were near her and whom she perceived to be Latino if they were “smuggling cocaine,” said Capt. Jason Rivarde, a Sheriff’s Office spokesperson. Airline workers requested Epstein be removed from the plane as she became increasingly irate, and the plane, which had started to taxi to the runway, returned to the gate, Rivarde said of the incident. Epstein refused to exit the jet bridge into the terminal after deputies arrived to escort her off, Rivarde said. When they tried to arrest her, she became “extremely combative,” Rivarde said. In the scuffle, Epstein reportedly injured six deputies, biting one on the arm and breaking the skin, and kicking another in the groin, Rivarde said. They were treated onsite by paramedics. Epstein shouted that the deputies were going to lose their jobs or end up in jail, boasting that she was related to powerful people and that her uncle is a friend of former President Donald Trump, Rivarde said. Seven deputies were needed to handcuff Epstein to a wheelchair, so that she could be moved to the airport security office, Rivarde said. She continued to shout vulgarities and try to bite deputies, he added. Epstein was booked on six counts of battery of a police officer, three of disturbing the peace, one of resisting arrest by force and one of remaining after forbidden, Rivarde said. She paid $10,750 bail and was released from the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center later that day

A woman’s actions forced a Southwest Airlines flight to make an emergency landing in Little Rock, Arkansas, when she bit a passenger and made the claim that Jesus told her to open the plane door 37,000 ft in the air. Flight 192 was on its way from Houston to Ohio when the woman hit a fellow passenger in the thigh before attempting to open the plane’s door mid-flight. A passenger overheard someone say, “she’s trying to open the door,” and went to the rear of the plane to help subdue her, wrestling the woman to the ground. She bit the helping passenger on the thigh, clamping down and holding on. Documents said the woman continued to bite the victim until the victim “worked their fingers up to (her) jawline in an attempt to have (her) release the bite, which she eventually did.” The woman is currently facing charges of assault and interference with flight crew members.

A joint INTERPOL – World Customs Organization (WCO) law enforcement operation has seen hundreds of arrests and the disruption of wildlife and timber crime networks globally.

Codenamed “Thunder 2022”, the month-long (3-30 October) operation brought together police, customs, financial intelligence units, wildlife and forestry enforcement agencies from 125 countries, the largest number of countries to take part in a Thunder operation since the series started in 2017. Through routine inspections and targeted controls, hundreds of parcels, suitcases, vehicles, boats and cargo transporters were examined, often with the use of sniffer dogs and X-ray scanners. Searches at land and air border checkpoints focused on illegally traded species protected by national legislation or CITES. CITES is an international agreement to ensure that trade in wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. All trade performed in breach of CITES is illegal. Seizures ranged from timber to live animals, as well as animal parts, bushmeat, and derivatives such as clothing, beauty products, food items, traditional medicines and handicrafts. Although operational results are still being reported, Operation Thunder 2022 has so far seen almost 2,200 seizures and the identification of 934 suspects, triggering a series of worldwide arrests and investigations linked to illegal trading, processing, exporting and importing of protected wildlife and forestry products. In addition to the identification of 141 companies suspected of engaging in illegal sales, total worldwide seizures of protected animals and plants so far include:

Wildlife:

• 119 big cats and other felines

• 34 primates, 136 primate body parts

• 25 rhino horns

• 9 pangolins, 389 kg pangolin scales and derivatives

• 750 birds, more than 450 bird parts

With seizures reported in units, or total kg, according to national police practices, results also include:

• Almost 780 kg and 516 pieces elephant ivory, and 27 elephant body parts

• 1,795 reptiles and almost half a tonne reptile parts and derivative products

• 4,337 and 2,813 kg marine products, including corals, eels and sea cucumbers

• 1,190 turtles and tortoises, 1,304 units and 8 kg body parts

• More than a tonne and 17,081 units other wildlife, parts and derivatives.

Plants and timber:

• 47,28 m3 rosewood and 17,163 pieces

• Almost 47,000 m3 and 6,764 pieces other timber

• 710 cacti, 125 and 1,706 kg orchids

• Almost 3.5 tonnes and 7,815 units other plants

• More than five tonnes and 3,945 units plant derivatives.

Kodiak Airport (ADQ) Supervisory TSA Officer Sarah Webb was using her split shift break to get lunch when she passed a taxi stopped on the side of the road. “It just didn’t look right,” remembers Webb. “I turned around and went back and asked if everything was OK,” said Webb, realizing this particular area of Kodiak was notorious for having poor cell phone reception. Her intuition being correct, Webb discovered a family in distress. A female (mother) was hunched over near the taxi. She appeared to have difficulty breathing and started to complain of chest pain. The husband said he thought his wife was having some kind of allergic reaction. Leaving nothing to chance, Webb offered her EPI (epinephrine auto-injection) pen and a four mile ride to Providence Kodiak hospital, since the taxi driver seemed reluctant to assist them. Webb called 911 and said she was en route to the hospital with an ill passenger and asked to have someone from the ER meet her and the stricken woman. She was then airlifted via Alaska Life Med to Providence Hospital in Anchorage and treated for a myocardial infarction. The doctors explained had she not arrived so quickly, the medication she needed to survive would not have not been administered in time to save her. “I was overwhelmed when I saw the boys at the checkpoint,” recalls Webb. “The boys said that their mom was far more comfortable riding with me than the taxi and thanked me for stopping to help.” And with a fist bump from one and a hug from the other, the boys were gone. “I had to step away from the checkpoint after the interaction with the boys,” said Webb.

European flights were disrupted on Friday, September 16 when French air traffic controllers went on strike. The strike forced airlines to cancel half of the flights scheduled to arrive or depart Paris airports and others with some estimates of more than 1,000 grounded flights. The strike was also supposed to happen on 28, 29 and 30 September, representatives said, but would be called off if the union reaches an agreement with France’s aviation authority, the DGAC. Strikes and staff shortages have resulted in cancellation of thousands of flights for the airlines. “Between 2029 and 2035, one third of the [air traffic control] workforce is retiring. It is imperative that we anticipate and plan recruitment,” a statement by the union says. “If not, the consequences will be inevitable in terms of the public service, working conditions and flexibility.” Ultimately, the air traffic controllers canceled an additional nationwide strike planned Sept. 28-30 after agreement reached. The unions reached an agreement with the supervisory body regarding salaries and recruitment and no additional delays were anticipated the week of 26 Sept.

A British Airways passenger defecated on the floor of the plane and smeared it into the seats — sickening travelers, according to reports taking unruly passenger behavior to new lows. The passenger, whose name was not released, began to “flip out” in protest just before the flight from London’s Heathrow Airport to Lagos, Nigeria, on Oct. 7. He took off his pants and defecated on the aircraft’s main floor. He then began rubbing the feces into the carpet, curtain and seats. Emergency services officials came, according to a witnesses. “During boarding a passenger stripped from the waist down and defecated on the galley floor. He sat in it and rubbed it onto the galley floor and aisle carpets,” the witnesses’ report states. “He walked in it and started running up the aisle as far as Door 4. He smeared his arms to elbow in fecal matter, and door seats as he went.” “The curtains and carpets were severely contaminated. Very important that a hygienic biohazard and deep clean is carried out and properly supervised and signed off,” a report states. Flight BA075 was delayed three hours while the Boeing 777-336 aircraft was taken out of service and sanitized. The report called the event a “hygienic biohazard.”

An Australian family was kicked off their Qantas flight home from Bali, after an altercation with flight attendants. The man was seen saying, “Get out of my face,” to one of the flight attendants. Eventually, the family left the aircraft as requested but the man insisted his wife was crying because the company’s employees had been rude to her and he requested they come and apologize to his wife.