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Contact photographer Jeffrey Schäfer
What: Delta Airlines Airbus A330-300 en route from Paris to Atlanta
Where: Bangor
When: Apr 27th 2010
Who: 235 passengers and 8 crew
Why: While en route, Derek Stansberry of Apollo, Florida passed a note— “Forgive me, I f—ed up, I’m sorry”—to a flight attendant and muttered that he had explosives in his bag and claimed he had a false passport. (There were no explosives and no fake passport.)
Two federal air marshalls isolated Stansberry in the rear of the plane and insulated him with pillows and blankets in case of an explosion.
(As if that would do any good in case of an explosion! I’m sure the action marshals took was the protocol for such things, however, from a layperson’s position I’m wondering what do they think a blanket can do to muffle a bomb exploding in a plane at 20,000 feet? Keep you warm while you explode? It’s like hiding behind a thimble while being run over with a steamroller, isn’t it?)
The flight diverted to Bangor.
Stansberry, who remained in custody after the rest of the passengers flew on to their destination, is an Air Force veteran who had taken a valium and a sleeping pill prior to the flight.
Swiss International Airlines flight LX-155 had to reject takeoff from Mumbai, India, on April 15th.
Delta Airlines flight DL-2263 had to divert and make an emergency landing in Orlando, Florida, on December 22nd.