AA Flight #55

I always dread the flight from the UK back to the states. Typically I leave from Manchester and arrive in Chicago. I chose this particular set-up this time to avoid having to go through London-Heathrow airport with all the recent terrorist hype of the past few weeks. I ended up on American Airlines Flight #55 which was diverted to Bangor, Maine. All the passengers were informed that there was a sick flight attendant on board and the individual needed medical attention. The flight was uneventful for the most part. No turbulence, no unruly passengers, and nothing out of the ordiniary. The only thing that passed through my mind was that one person couldn't wait two extra hours for medical attention? I didn't notice anyone with a severed limb and no one was screaming in pain, so how bad could it be? It seems as though that the whole 'sick flight attendant' was used as a cover-up for something else. When we deboarded the plane we were in the middle of the tarmac, far removed from any buildings and the terminal. There were several customs cars and plain clothes officers. I was near the back of the plane so by the time I got out, it appeared that they had someone (might have been two) in custody with their shoes removed. We were quickly loaded onto buses which took us to the terminal. We weren't feed any information other than what we needed to do next. All the passengers had to be interviewed by the FBI. The FBI was particularly interested in interviewing the passengers who were seated by the suspect individual(s). I had nothing to add when it was my turn. 7hrs later we were back on the same plane to Chicago. I've never had to go through so many security checks in my life along with showing my passport to so many people. We were taken out of one room so that we could check-in with immigration and go through customs only to come back to the same room and having to go through the same security checks again (remove shoes, belt, open laptop bag, emtpy pockes, etc). I am now in a hotel room in Chicago, catching the first flight out to San Francisco tomorrow. I was supposed to be there today. It has been a long 24hrs.

Story from BBC here