Anthrax Theater opens in San Jose

[Karsten M. Self]

on Sat, Oct 13, 2001 at 06:07:22PM -0700, Steve Schear (schear at lvcm.com)
wrote:
> UA flight 1669 from Chicago landed safely about 3:00 pm.  Initial
> reports were of a white powdery substance being released into the air
> ducts by a man of middle eastern decent.  The plane has been
> surrounded by hazmat crews.  The 80+ passengers are still aboard.  The
> air conditioning had been turned off (its in the 90s on the tarmac
> right now).
>
> I local LE spokesman just got on to say there was no powdery substance
> released, but rather some confetti from a greeting card.  So why are
> the passengers still aboard?

URL:  SJ Mercury News, source:  AP.  Also a UAL London-DC flight.

    http://www0.mercurycenter.com/local/center/sjplane1014.htm

    Plane quarantined at San Jose International Airport

    SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- About 80 passengers were held aboard a
    United Airlines jet that arrived Saturday afternoon from Chicago
    after a man reportedly stood up in mid-flight and released a powdery
    substance into the air ventilation system.

    Police, FBI and emergency crews were at the scene setting up a
    decontamination tent for the passengers of United Airlines Flight
    1669 from Chicago.

    ``There was apparently a report of a middle eastern male who went to
    the rear of the plane and opened up an envelope. It had some powder
    in it and it went through the air duct system,'' said San Jose
    police department spokesman Rubens Dalaison.

    The witness and the man who allegedly dispersed the powder were
    taken off the plane and were being decontaminated at about 5:00 p.m.
    Fire department personnel took air samples from inside the United
    Airlines Airbus 319 craft to determine if any toxic agents were
    present, Dalaison said.

    Airport spokesman Jim Peterson said someone from flight crew radioed
    ahead to the San Jose tower at about 2:30 p.m. and told them that a
    witness reported seeing a man open up an envelope and disperse an
    unknown substance into an air vent.

    The incident came as anthrax scares spread throughout the United
    States. In Boca Raton, Fla., five more tabloid employees at the
    American Media Inc. building tested positive for exposure to
    anthrax, a company spokesman announced Saturday.

    At Washington's Dulles International Airport, a spokeswoman said a
    powdery substance found in a restroom on a United Airlines plane
    from London was being tested at an Army laboratory in Maryland.

    Spokeswoman Tara Hamilton said the flight was met Saturday by a
    hazardous materials team and FBI agents, who determined that 17
    people out of 216 passengers and 14 crew members had used the
    bathroom.

    The 17 passengers were detained and preliminary decontamination
    steps were taken on them, which Hamilton said consisted for most
    part of washing their hands.

--
Karsten M. Self <kmself at ix.netcom.com>       http://kmself.home.netcom.com/
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