New York, NY – Officials stopped an Emirates airline plane on a taxiway now at New York’s JFK airport in order to determine whether a passenger aboard is on the U.S. “no fly” list.
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A senior government official told NBC News that Emirates Flight 204 was destined for Dubai.
The pilots had requested permission to taxi for takeoff when Customs and Border Protection blocked the plane from taxiing.
A federal official said there was a possible match between a passenger’s name and a name on the no fly list.
Homeland Security vehicles could be seen near the airplane.
**UPDATE** 12:50 PM
An all clear has been given and the airline was given permission to take off, the man in question on the list was an error.
Emirates current slogan is: “Fly Emirates. Meet Dubai”. With a second plane being stopped, they should change it to “Fly Emirates. Meet a Terrorist.”
I think our government better figure out a way not to allow people on a “Do Not Fly List” not to get on the plane. It boggles the mind that when your passport and boarding pass are scanned at ceck in and prior to boarding respectively, that the computer does not immediately notify the airline that someone on the list is trying to fly.
Evidently Emirates was within the letter of the law with the terrorist, they had updated their list earlier that same day.
Nevertheless, It was obviously suspicious enough that any normal person would have called for back up. A person suddenly showing up and buying a long haul ticket for cash towards the end of check in! Had it been my parents taking Jetblue to Florida thay would have been questioned. (Actually, wrong, my parents are searched EVERY TIME and the last time my Mother finally stopped the guy from spilling out all the pills into a pile.)
I say either BAN Emirates for complicity or require they have all check in done under 1 to 1 supervision by the FBI.
emirates preferred Airlines for terrorists!
not the airline, just in case they would tip the terroprist of.
the tower and the gov should be notified. the tower to stop the plane and the gov to take care of him, the question is what about those that may have a different name on the passport because a gov may be helping them?
WOW!! that plane is HUGE!!! What model is that? (Since i’ve seen that we have some with pilot knowledge on this site i figured s/o can provide an answer…..)
I said a 777, I might be wrong.
The photo is definately a 380, it might not be current
That is not a current picture as Emirates does not fly the A380 into JFK anymore. It will be returning to the Dubai – NYC route soon though.
The FBI should have an agent at their gate watching everyone.
Whoa. I wouldn’t want to be in change of getting something that big in the air and back down safely.
It’s a difficult problem
do a search for achmed Mohammed and you get 75 hits in brooklyn alone
so how can they expect to match names on a list?!
its obama shifting blame, pointing fingers, but its never HIM, or HIS faults, did not do a thing since the underware bomber, nor now.
Emirates does not supply Kosher food. I flew it to Dubai. Very good service. Business class was amazing.
But the best part is they have special overhead racks for your machine guns.
And you can put your grenades in the seat pocket in front of you.
Well, they don’t have kosher food, 🙁
I guess the Govt got a report of a white male age 40-45 on board.
Emirates current slogan is: “Fly Emirates. Meet Dubai”. With a second plane being stopped, they should change it to “Fly Emirates. Meet a Terrorist”.