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Contact photographer John Richard Thomson

What: Aeroflot A332 en route from Havana to Moscow
Where: 320nm southeast of New York
When: Oct 8th 2009
Who: full plane
Why: While en route and still south east of New York, a German passenger became ill. The crew asked to divert to New York but instead landed in Toronto Canada.

They were not cleared to land in NY.

George’s Point of View

The report says that a crew “talking very good English” reported the medical crisis. Simply based on the way that is phrased, one might assume that perhaps that English wasn’t quite as well-spoken as the claim asserts. Or perhaps there may have been weather issues. Or traffic issues. (When does New York NOT have traffic issues?) Or perhaps we are simply living in a post 9/11 America.

At least, we are told that the German passenger who had suffered vomiting appears to be recovering nicely.

I am sure in the days to come, this non-event (after all, nothing seriously untoward happened) is something that will be investigated and published. It is too ripe an opportunity for U.S. detractors to miss aiming some kind of anti-American propaganda toward.