Japanese resident of Mexico City Airport relocates to new home

by Grant Martin on

We’ve been following the story of Hiroshi Nohara for a couple of months now, the Japanese man who showed up at Mexico City‘s Benito Juarez airport last fall, put his bags down and effectively set up residence in the terminal. He wouldn’t explain why he was there or where he was going, but since his tourist visa was still valid, authorities had to let him stay.

Nohara, who had been living on food and clothing donations from visitors and local sponsors, had turned into a bit of a tourist attraction until he mysteriously disappeared from the airport a couple of weeks back, vanishing into a taxi with a woman who nobody knew.

Now, the Mexican newspaper Reforma has positively identified the woman only as “Oyuki,” who tells the media that she just wanted Nohara to have a warm bed to sleep in. Perhaps the woman, whose husband is currently working in Japan was just lonely.

With a new place to stay, Nohara is apparently now sporting a new, cleaned up look and leading a normal life. He probably needs to make himself presentable for meeting the movie producers.

Top 10 stupidest laws you could encounter abroad


Baghdad airport welcomes first European passenger flight in 18 years

by Scott Carmichael on

18 years after the United Nations imposed a ban on all commercial air traffic destined for Iraq, a Swedish charter plane has landed at Baghdad International Airport.

The charter was operated by Nordic Leisure and their 150 passengers were mostly Iraqis.

This is just the beginning of what should become a fairly popular route, as many Iraqis are in Europe waiting to return to their homeland. KLM/Air France recently signed an agreement for direct flights to Baghdad from several European locations.

Baghdad airport has seen a slowly increasing number of other flights in recent years, though most of it involved cargo flights. Regular scheduled passenger flights have greeted the airport from destinations like Jordan and Dubai since 2003.

Pre 1991, most major airlines in the world had Baghdad on their schedule, including weekly flights on British Airways from London. BA had originally planned to return to Baghdad in 2003, right after President Bush declared “Mission Accomplished”, but when violence on the road to the airport reached an all time high, the plans were delayed.

(Via: Google News/AFP)

More on Muslim family kicked off of AirTran flight for questioning

by Jamie Rhein on

Yesterday, not long after Scott posted about the American family who are Muslim were removed from an AirTran flight at the Ronald Reagan International Airport in Washington D.C., I heard an interview on NPR with Atif Irfan, one of the family members.

Irfan explained in more detail what happened to create the misunderstanding. Because there were nine of them, the family had booked the last rows of the plane so they could all sit together. As they were walking down the aisle, he and a sister-in-law were discussing which part of the plane was the safest. His wife recalls that a “couple of girls” who heard their conversation thought they were talking about doing some sort of terrorist act. Federal marshals escorted them off the plane for questioning.

As Irfan explained, the men in the family have beards and the women have head coverings, but other than that they were wearing western style dress. He also said they had three small children with them. Usually, he is very careful about what he says as to not alarm people, but this time they weren’t thinking much about their conversation.

What amazes me about this story is not that the family was questioned, but that after the FBI cleared the family and asked AirTran to allow the family to fly, AirTran refused. Who did AirTran think the FBI were? Certainly the FBI had badges and obvious credentials. If the FBI aren’t listened to, that’s startling? Maybe there was a snafu in communication.

Irfan, by the way, has nothing but good things to say about the FBI who did get the family on a US Airways flight. AirTran has since offered restitution in a free flight home and reimbursement for the family’s US Airways flight and an apology.

After listening to Irfan, I was reminded about the importance of civility. For the family who, from what I can tell, stayed calm and collected throughout their experience, bravo. I’m wondering just how many other passengers would have behaved so well? It’s also a reminder that passengers do listen to conversations. What you say could be held against you.

By the way, Atif Irfan was born and raised in Detroit and now is a lawyer who lives in Alexandria, Virginia.

Paranoia strikes again – Muslim family kicked off their Airtran flight

by Scott Carmichael on

Here we go again. Another family traveling for the holidays has been kicked off their flight after a fellow passenger observed them mentioning the word “safety”. That’s right, not “bomb”, “terrorist” or “hijack”.

Just your average family of 9 trying to figure out where they wanted to seat.

Someone on board managed to get the attention of 2 federal air marshals, who then contacted their superiors in Washington. The family was then kicked off the plane, questioned by the FBI and of course, cleared of any wrongdoing.

The TSA then decided that the threat was so credible, that all 104 passengers would have to be re-screened, and that all their bags would have to be inspected again. To me, this means that they admit they may have done a crappy job during the first screening.

As if that wasn’t enough, Airtran then refused to transport the 9 passengers and simply refunded their tickets. It took some effort by the FBI to find alternative flights for the family.

Good job Airtran, keeping us safe from people trying to find a decent seat on your flights. In their defense, AirTran did let the family know that they were free to fly with them in the future, which I’m sure they are really thrilled to hear.

(Via: NBC Washington)

Famous ‘Larry Craig bathroom’ stall at MSP losing tourist appeal

by Jeffrey White on

The bathroom at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (pictured) in which US Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho) was arrested 18 months ago for using his “wide stance” to solicit sex is fading as a tourist destination, the airport tells the Associated Press.

While it might seem ridiculous that the bathroom ever became a tourist draw, apparently it did so. People who might not have otherwise stopped in the men’s room that lies in the middle of MSP’s busy Lindberg terminal did so knowing it was the “Larry Craig bathroom,” the airport says.

In his excellent piece in the Atlantic a few months ago about the idiocy of airport security, writer Jeffrey Goldberg sets an opening scene in this famously lewd loo. An unidentified person once offered MSP $5,000 to buy the stall in which Craig was arrested — the airport turned the offer down.

If MSP is a little tired about the interest this bathroom has generated — and therefore relieved that this interest is waning — it has had some benefit: namely, the airport has not had to follow through on plans to modify the restroom in order to prevent the kind of lewd activity long reported to have been going on there.

Officials were considering making changes to the bathroom’s stalls to thwart the kind of toe-tapping and other signals men used to solicit sex. But the airport says the number of complaints about inappropriate behavior in the bathroom has dropped significantly since the Craig arrest.

For the record, Craig pleaded guilty of disorderly conduct in August 2007, though he denies doing anything wrong. He did not run again this year for re-election, and will leave Washington this month.

Need a little background on the Craig scandal? Check out Slate‘s re-enactment of the incident, and this particularly thoughtful and funny essay about the incident by Christopher Hitchens — worth the read for the last two sentences alone.