MJS said:
See, this is the problem we're starting to face. In the initial reports, everybody was saying that this guy said 'I have a bomb' while he was running down the aisle of the plane. The news found a few people that heard nothing and this is what they're jumping on. My question is: I think its important to get all of the facts before they start running around saying "he said this and he said that." Seems to me that they're running with the fact that because a handful of people didnt hear anything then he must not have had a bomb. Thats bull if you ask me, but so typical of the media.
I would think that if he said nothing about a bomb, but his behavior was like it was, that the Marshals or someone would have done something. I dont know about anyone else, but if I was on a plane and there was someone acting like a nut, I would want someone to intervene.
Mike
There appear to be two or three passengers who have agreed to talk to the media, one of who is mad because he got his cell phone knocked out of his hand, who claim not to have heard him say the word "Bomb". However, the Police Department interviewed ALL the passengers, and seem pretty confident about what has occurred. Often, you get a couple of malcontents, who either weren't paying attention, or want their 15-minutes of fame AND they want to grind an ax against someone.
What's furthermore, none of them were present on the ground where the man was shot.
What's more, I heard CNN say "No one has come forward claiming to have heard that he had a bomb". That's outright dishonest. They didn't say "No one has come forward 'to the media'" which is what they meant. The Miami-Dade police department interviewed every passenger.
At the time CNN announced "No one has come forward", they were referring to one guy who came to Time and said "I didn't hear it". No one else had talked to the reporters. I guess all witnesses must clear themselves through CNN first.
"Miami-Dade police official Roy Rutland said the department has interviewed witnesses who confirm the marshals' report of hearing Alpizar speak of a bomb. Rutland would not say whether the witnesses were crew or passengers."
"Rigoberto Alpizar, 44, made the bomb threat after a flight attendant blocked him from exiting Flight 924 just minutes before the plane was scheduled to leave for Orlando, said Lonny Glover, national safety coordinator for the Association of Professional Flight Attendants. "
"As the man came forward it was obvious that he was upset," Glover said. "That's when one of our attendants at the front of plane told him, 'Sir, you can't leave the plane.' His response, she said, was 'I have a bomb.' It was at that point that the air marshals gave up their cover and pursued him out the door and up the jetbridge."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-12-08-marshals-defense_x.htm?csp=34
So apparently he said it near the exit door, when he was blocked from exiting by the stewardess. That would explain why some claimed they didn't hear it.
In addition, "Passenger Natalia Cayon, 16, of Codazzi, Colombia, told USA TODAY that she saw Alpizar's wife run after him and say in Spanish: "He's sick. He has a problem." So the wife apparently did yell this...but in Spanish.
"Cayon said she then heard the woman say in English, "Oh my God." Cayon next heard three to five shots."
Sounds more and more like a justified use of force.
Of course then you get this: "the shooting is likely to raise questions about the expanded presence of guns aboard commercial airplanes in recent years, as well as the marshals' training -- in particular, with people who appear to be mentally unstable." So REAL bombers are stable, unstable people are 'fake bombers'? What BS.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/07/AR2005120701578.html
Apparently, the Air Marshall's gave him orders in both Spanish and English.
"Mr. Adams said he did not know what language the air marshals had used to address Mr. Alpizar. But another marshal, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because air marshals have been threatened with dismissal for speaking to the news media, said he understood that instructions had been given in both Spanish and English."
"Mark Raynor, an American Airlines pilot and local union official in Miami, said an account he heard from the plane's captain had supported law enforcement accounts of the shooting."
"Mr. Raynor said the captain had been outside the cockpit at the time of the shooting and witnessed it, but the first officer had been inside the cockpit and had seen nothing."
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051209/ZNYT02/512090432
Again, what happened to this man is a sad turn of events, but it appears to be a turn of events caused by his actions.
