Orthodox Jew's headgear sparked plane bomb scare: source AFP - Friday, January 22Send IM Story Print

An airplane gets ready to land. An Orthodox Jew's prayer rituals, including wearing a sacred box on his head, triggered a bomb scare Thursday aboard a US passenger plane, a security source told AFP.
NEW YORK (AFP) - – An Orthodox Jew's prayer rituals, including wearing a sacred box on his head, triggered a bomb scare Thursday aboard a US passenger plane, a security source told AFP.

The Chautauqua Airlines jet bound from New York to Louisville, Kentucky, diverted to Philadelphia International Airport after what authorities described as a security incident caused by a "disruptive passenger."

"It appears that it was a misunderstanding with a religious passenger wearing a religious item and praying loudly," the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.

"The flight crew deemed, I guess, his actions and his item he was using to be suspicious and diverted the airplane," the security source said.

The false alert reflected jitters throughout the US air travel network since an alleged attempt by a Nigerian man to set off a bomb on December 25 on a Northwest Airlines plane bound from Amsterdam to Detroit.

Newark International Airport was paralyzed earlier this month when a man made an unauthorized entry into a secure zone -- just to give a departing passenger a last kiss, it turned out.

Another security scare occurred at a California airport when Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents found suspicious liquids on a passenger. The substance was later found to be honey.

Greg Soule, spokesman for the TSA, said that the passenger in Thursday's incident was questioned by law enforcement officers on the ground and that the plane was searched with "negative findings."

"There's an individual in custody," an FBI spokesman in Philadelphia told AFP. "There was a security concern but I can't comment on that."

Initial reports on CBS 3 television referred to a male passenger who'd strapped a wire from his fingers to his head.

The security source told AFP that the passenger in question was in fact wearing a phylactery, the box containing Bible verses that Orthodox Jews strap around their head as part of their rituals.

He was "praying loudly and using this device," the source said. "What we're hearing is there was a language barrier."

The misunderstanding echoed a string of embarrassing incidents involving Muslims or people of Middle Eastern appearance over recent years.

In 2006, an architect was prevented by security staff from boarding a JetBlue flight from New York to California while wearing a T-shirt with Arabic writing on the front.

Raed Jarrar, who is of Iraqi descent, said he was told by one official that "going to an airport with a T-shirt in Arabic script is like going to a bank and wearing a T-shirt that says 'I'm a robber.'"

The T-shirt actually said in Arabic: "We will not be silent," an anti-war slogan in the Middle East.

US Airways was initially reported to be the airline involved in Thursday's scare. Chautauqua Airlines operates in partnership with US Airways, as well as other major brands.

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