# United Airlines flight diverted to Boston after nutjob pulls a screwdriver, note **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 16, 2006, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-flight-diverted-to-boston-after-nutjob-pulls-a-screwdriver-note/368954 "2006-08-16T15:25:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-flight-diverted-to-boston-after-nutjob-pulls-a-screwdriver-note/368954/121 "2006-08-18T02:45:03Z")
Yup, Catherine C. Mayo now that is a Middle Eastern name if ever I heard one. DTC never has to go to a gym, he gets plenty of exercise jumping to conclusions. (and back again for that matter) :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-flight-diverted-to-boston-after-nutjob-pulls-a-screwdriver-note/368954/122 "2006-08-18T03:30:21Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] When I said this wouldn’t have happened “if she was white,” it didn’t occur to me that she could be white but mistaken for Arabic (I never said anything about “looking Muslim”, btw. I said “looking Middle Eastern”). [/QUOTE] Have you ever been wrong about anything? None of us had all of the information in the beginning but only you and that doofus Bosda jumped to the racist conclusion that an Arabic person was involved. So far there has been no evidence that she was mistaken for being an Arab. How are you going to wiggle out of that one tomorrow? If it ends up that she was definitely not mistaked for an Arab will you then admit that you were mistaken? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-flight-diverted-to-boston-after-nutjob-pulls-a-screwdriver-note/368954/123 "2006-08-18T03:34:09Z")
Sure. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-flight-diverted-to-boston-after-nutjob-pulls-a-screwdriver-note/368954/124 "2006-08-18T04:01:13Z")
Let’s see what CNN says the nice people in court had to say about it. From: [http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/08/17/flight.diverted.ap/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/08/17/flight.diverted.ap/index.html) > [@](#): > > Her attorney, federal public defender Page Kelley, said Mayo was “just barely lucid” when they spoke. “She’s got some very serious mental health problems.” Her attorney declined to say that she was a Muslim who had been beaten for being a Muslim (as was asserted in Post #3 of this thread)… > [@](#): > > In the affidavit, Choldin says flight attendants noticed Mayo about 90 minutes into the flight because she was pushing against the aircraft bulkhead. When the attendant told her to return to her seat, Mayo said she wanted to speak to an air marshal and made statements about knowing that people wanted to see what was in her bag. > > FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz confirmed Thursday that authorities found a screwdriver and an unspecified number of cigarette lighters in her bag, items which are banned under new security regulations. Marcinkiewicz also confirmed that matches were found in Mayo’s bag. > > She also had a bottle of water, which did not appear to be supplied by the flight crew. But what really happened was, people thought she looked Middle Eastern and decided to jump to conclusions, right? > [@](#): > > Later during the flight, according to the affidavit, Mayo asked a flight attendant: “Is this a training flight for United Flight 93?” The flight attendant didn’t know if she made a mistake because the flight was actually Flight 923, or if she was referring to Flight 93, the hijacked plane that crashed in Pennsylvania on September 11. > > She was “biting her fingers, rubbing her feet and in a constant state of movement. She appeared very agitated,” the affidavit said. > > She also wrote in a note and said to flight attendants that she had been in a country illegally, and later said she had photographs of Pakistan. > > “She stated that the photographs would be awful, and she indicated that they related to the people that she had been with in the mountains of Pakistan,” the affidavit said. > > Flight attendants summoned the captain, who spoke to Mayo. During the conversation, she made reference to there being “six steps to building some unspecified thing.” > > “She made reference to being with people associated with two words. She stated that she could not say what the two words were because the last time that she had said the two words she had been kicked off of a flight in the United Arab Emirates,” according to the affidavit. > > The captain and purser both believed that she was referring to al Qaeda, Choldin wrote. Yeah…if that’s all true, there’s no reason at all anyone would ever think she might be connected to Al Queda…it must have been because she was a person of Middle Eastern descent who looked like one of them thar’ darkie Islamamuslims, right? :rolleyes: Oh wait, that wasn’t it at all…of course, some can claim that this doesn’t prove anything, we can never tell just how deep the inherent racism and hatred of other cultures is in every American living under the Bush Junta…and that the entirety of the above was made up or fabricated by people to cover their butts. > [@](#): > > About 35 minutes later, when she tried to go to the bathroom, the flight attendants directed her to a different lavatory. Instead, she pulled down her pants and urinated on the floor, Choldin wrote in the affidavit, which was based on his interviews and those of other federal officials. The reality as I see it is she wasn’t a terrorist, she was more likely a stoned out of her fucking gourd leftover flower child who dropped a huge hit of acid and heard Big Bird and Puff the Magic Dragon tell her to fight the Great Satan in Clouds of Sulfur by disrupting the flight. Of course, I can’t prove that, as Big Bird has taken the Fifth and Puff is missing, presumed hidden away in a terror cell somewhere near the top of the Chrysler building making anthrax spores to unleash on Gotham. Whatever the case, I hope she, Big Bird, and Puff all have fun in a different type of cell for a long time. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-flight-diverted-to-boston-after-nutjob-pulls-a-screwdriver-note/368954/125 "2006-08-18T04:26:47Z")
So now they’re changing the story again and saying she WAS talking about _al Qaeda_ (or alluding to it, at least)? If that’s the case then it makes more sense. I was operating under the assumption that she had NOT said anything about aQ and that others on the plane had fabricated the “notes” about it from their own fevered imaginations. Yesterday the airline DENIED that there had been any note about aQ, so my whole line of thought was based on trying to figure out how we got from “lady having a panic attack” or even “crazy lady peeing on the floor” to “al Qaeda terrorist?” The only thing that made any sense to me was that she must have been Muslim or Middle Eastern or at least APPEARED to be one or both of those things. Now they’re saying she DID say that stuff, so my suspicions have been mooted but not really refuted. The circumstances which _led_ to my suspicions were not represented correctly. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-flight-diverted-to-boston-after-nutjob-pulls-a-screwdriver-note/368954/126 "2006-08-18T04:42:39Z")
The thing that somewhat irks me is I read earlier today a report that to calm her down, the flight crew offered her a seat in First Class…oh wait, here it is. From: [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/17/us/17plane.html?ref=europe](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/17/us/17plane.html?ref=europe) > [@](#): > > Flight attendants insisted that the woman sit down and, when she refused, told Ms. Brown to move to first class. Holy dogshit, that’s about an $8000 seat. If that’s what it takes to get upgraded now, I’m going to start doing all sorts of heavy drugs before each flight. I’ll see sounds and hear colours with the best of them. Or maybe I’ll skip the drugs and claim to be part of a cult. I’ll say I represent the Rosicrucian Riders of the Golden Dawn and I’m on board to “cleanse the plane” of nonbelievers - that might get me a one-year lounge pass! _With_ complementary travel kit and honey roasted peanuts… [sub]Yes, I know they likely wanted her in First so they could watch her better, or maybe so she would have more space and calm down, but still…[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-flight-diverted-to-boston-after-nutjob-pulls-a-screwdriver-note/368954/127 "2006-08-18T04:46:47Z")
[QUOTE=Una Persson] The thing that somewhat irks me is I read earlier today a report that to calm her down, the flight crew offered her a seat in First Class…oh wait, here it is. From: [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/17/us/17plane.html?ref=europe](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/17/us/17plane.html?ref=europe) Holy dogshit, that’s about an $8000 seat. If that’s what it takes to get upgraded now, I’m going to start doing all sorts of heavy drugs before each flight. I’ll see sounds and hear colours with the best of them. Or maybe I’ll skip the drugs and claim to be part of a cult. I’ll say I represent the Rosicrucian Riders of the Golden Dawn and I’m on board to “cleanse the plane” of nonbelievers - that might get me a one-year lounge pass! _With_ complementary travel kit and honey roasted peanuts… [sub]Yes, I know they likely wanted her in First so they could watch her better, or maybe so she would have more space and calm down, but still…[/sub] [/QUOTE] Bzzzzzzzzzzzzt. Incorrect. Ms. Brown was not the woman causing the problem. If you read your link, you’ll see that “Carolyn Brown, 54, of Grafton, Ill.” was the crazy woman’s seatmate. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-flight-diverted-to-boston-after-nutjob-pulls-a-screwdriver-note/368954/128 "2006-08-18T04:51:16Z")
**Una** , They offered the seat in first class to the lady who was sitting next to the passeger who was acting out. **Dio** , you are missing my point. All of us heard the same set of circumstances and you chose to leap to the conclusion that race was a factor. Not a goddamed thing has been mooted. I didn’t assume that she was Middle Eastern, most of the rest of us in this thread didn’t assume that and her fellow passengers didn’t assume that. Only you and Bosda assumed that. This says a lot more about you than it does about Americans in general. Admit you were mistaken, for the love of all that’s holy, it will only sting for a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-flight-diverted-to-boston-after-nutjob-pulls-a-screwdriver-note/368954/129 "2006-08-18T05:14:25Z")
I wasn’t mistaken, the reports were. I still think I’m right that a freaking-out white lady who WASN’T already talking about al Qaeda (as the airline was saying yesterday) would not be likely to be thought a terrorist. I still think that if a hypothetical scenario existed _as it was presented yesterday_ – that a lady was having a panic attack _without saying anything about al Qaeda or terrorism_ – and people started falsely assuming she was a terrorost, that some other factor would have to be in play for them to make that leap. Perceived ethnicity was the only explanation that made sense to me. Now we’re finding out that _an element we were told yesterday was missing_ was actually _present_, so that removes the entire basis for my suspicion. I haven’t been proven wrong, I was just operating with false information. If that information had been accurate, I still think my suspicions would have been reasonable. ---
**Author:** ![parrot\_recipes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@parrot\_recipes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/parrot_recipes)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-flight-diverted-to-boston-after-nutjob-pulls-a-screwdriver-note/368954/130 "2006-08-18T05:16:34Z")
[QUOTE=Una Persson] - that might get me a one-year lounge pass! _With_ complementary travel kit and honey roasted peanuts… [/QUOTE] They only give pretzels now. Security reasons. ---
**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-flight-diverted-to-boston-after-nutjob-pulls-a-screwdriver-note/368954/131 "2006-08-18T06:18:22Z")
[QUOTE=xtisme] Do you have a cite anywhere that anyone THOUGHT she was muslim [/QUOTE] Jesus Christ Xtisme, are you lazy or something? Such a cite is childishly easy to produce. I direct you [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=7686566&postcount=25). Do your damn homework before poping off, will ya? ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-flight-diverted-to-boston-after-nutjob-pulls-a-screwdriver-note/368954/132 "2006-08-18T12:17:02Z")
[QUOTE=hajario] **Una** , They offered the seat in first class to the lady who was sitting next to the passeger who was acting out. Admit you were mistaken, for the love of all that’s holy, it will only sting for a bit. [/QUOTE] You’re correct - I was completely and totally mistaken about which passenger was offered First Class seating. I must have misread it not once but at least twice. So what I need to do then is make my seatmate go insane instead… ---
**Author:** ![Ponder\_Stibbons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponder_stibbons/32/343_2.png) [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-flight-diverted-to-boston-after-nutjob-pulls-a-screwdriver-note/368954/133 "2006-08-18T13:38:29Z")
[QUOTE=Weirddave] … I direct you [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=7686566&postcount=25). Do your damn homework before poping off, will ya? [/QUOTE] Great. First it was Muslims, now you’re bringing Catholics into it. :dubious: 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-flight-diverted-to-boston-after-nutjob-pulls-a-screwdriver-note/368954/134 "2006-08-18T14:05:59Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] If that information had been accurate, I still think my suspicions would have been reasonable. [/QUOTE] You take the fucking cake, dude. If it isn’t too much trouble, would you mind responding to all of my last post? ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-flight-diverted-to-boston-after-nutjob-pulls-a-screwdriver-note/368954/135 "2006-08-18T14:07:06Z")
Slightly off-topic, but I think, having read the account posted by **Una Persson** , that it is safe to say that this was some manifestation of psychopathology other than merely a “panic attack.” ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-flight-diverted-to-boston-after-nutjob-pulls-a-screwdriver-note/368954/136 "2006-08-18T14:07:32Z")
[QUOTE=Una Persson] You’re correct - I was completely and totally mistaken about which passenger was offered First Class seating. I must have misread it not once but at least twice. So what I need to do then is make my seatmate go insane instead… [/QUOTE] Una, that last line in my post that you quoted was not directed at you. You made an honest mistake and I was just pointing it out. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-flight-diverted-to-boston-after-nutjob-pulls-a-screwdriver-note/368954/137 "2006-08-18T14:14:37Z")
[QUOTE=hajario] You take the fucking cake, dude. If it isn’t too much trouble, would you mind responding to all of my last post? [/QUOTE] what, that everybody else saw the same facts and didn’t have the same suspicions? So what? ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-flight-diverted-to-boston-after-nutjob-pulls-a-screwdriver-note/368954/138 "2006-08-18T14:33:55Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] what, that everybody else saw the same facts and didn’t have the same suspicions? So what? [/QUOTE] I think **hajario** is doing a fine job of pointing out that you jumped to unwarranted conclusions. Whether that is a simple misunderstanding of facts or a glimpse into the diseased mind of somebody who is so determined to cry “Racism!” in everything that happens is up to the reader to determine. Me, I think the latter. For someone who decries reaching conclusions without all the facts, you seem to be doing it alot lately. And, oddly enough, those conclusions all seem to fit your worldview. Open your mind, dude. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-flight-diverted-to-boston-after-nutjob-pulls-a-screwdriver-note/368954/139 "2006-08-18T14:38:09Z")
[QUOTE=Weirddave] Jesus Christ Xtisme, are you lazy or something? Such a cite is childishly easy to produce. I direct you here. Do your damn homework before poping off, will ya? [/QUOTE] :smack: Good gods, you had me worried there. I thought maybe I HAD missed something on the news that was obvious and that you were serious. 😛 I didn’t really bother myself researching this last night as I was totally beat after work. Ok, let me rephrase in light of your cite. Is there a cite from anyone who was actually on the plane or had first hand knowledge that she was either a muslim OR looked like she was from the Middle East. 😛 Beause frankly, having seen her picture, I’m not seeing it. -XT ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2006, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-flight-diverted-to-boston-after-nutjob-pulls-a-screwdriver-note/368954/140 "2006-08-18T14:40:03Z")
[QUOTE=Hentor the Barbarian] Slightly off-topic, but I think, having read the account posted by Una Persson, that it is safe to say that this was some manifestation of psychopathology other than merely a “panic attack.” [/QUOTE] I agree. I have to say, though there are no facts that I know of to support it (ehe, DtC? 😉 ) that is dropping acid speculation is at least plausable. -XT [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-flight-diverted-to-boston-after-nutjob-pulls-a-screwdriver-note/368954.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-flight-diverted-to-boston-after-nutjob-pulls-a-screwdriver-note/368954.md?page=8)