Category: Let's talk
Anyone who has flown will have been asked the same questions during check in at airports. "Did you pack your own bags?" And "has anybody interfered with your luggage since you packed?" I'm sure I'm not the only person who has often thought that these are daft questions to be asked and having to answer them is just a pointless irritation. But, odd as it may seem, there is actually a perfectly good reason for check-in staff to pose these questions to passengers.
The story starts in early 1984 with a thirty-year-old Irish woman employed as a chamber maid at the Hilton hotel in London named Ann Marie Murphy. At some point during that period she met a Jordanian called Nizar Hindawi. Over the next two years the couple grew close to each other, though the relationship between them was described as spasmodic owing to the fact that Hindawi had to keep returning to Jordan because he could only enter the United Kingdom on a temporary visa. Unbeknownst to Ann Marie Hindawi had links to both the Syrian intelligence services and the security administration of the Syrian air force, though she believed him to be a journalist.
In February of 1986 Hindawi was approached by one of his contacts in the Syrian air force, a senior officer named Haytham Sa’id who suggested at that time that Hindawi place a bomb on an El Al flight. El Al is the national airline of Israel. It was further suggested that Hindawi dupe somebody else who would arouse less suspicion than a Jordanian at check-in, and also preferably a woman.
In April of the same year Hindawi returned to the United Kingdom and once again met up with his part-time lover Ann Marie Murphy. It was at this point that Hindawi learned that Murphy was six months pregnant with his baby. He then suggested to her that the couple should get married immediately. He then made arrangements for her to fly to Israel for a wedding and for Ann Marie to meet his family. He explained that being Jordanian it wouldn't be possible for him to accompany her on the flight, but that he would fly back to Jordan and then travel from there by road to Israel to meet up with her at the airport in Tel Aviv.
On the night of the 16th of April 1986 Hindawi arrived at Ann Marie's house with a bag for her to use for packing. It was later revealed that the bag had been specially made in Syria and then brought into the UK on a Syrian airlines flight. From there the lower portion of the bag was filled with explosives before it was taken to Ann Marie's house by Hindawi. Once the packing was complete a scientific calculator was then placed in the bag by Hindawi and connected to the main explosive charge. The calculator was to be used as a timer. It was revealed by Ann Marie during later interrogation that she recalled Hindawi fumbling in the bag during the trip to the airport the following morning. This apparently was so that Hindawi could connect a battery to the calculator and then in turn the calculator to the explosives cache close to the bottom of the bag.
Having dropped Ann Marie off at London's Heathrow airport Hindawi then headed back to his hotel to wait for some Syrian airlines crew members to pick him up so that he could catch a flight out of the UK headed for Syria.
Mean while at the airport Ann Marie was approached as part of a routine security sweep and was later described by the officer who questioned her as a simple woman who showed no sign of nervousness while answering questions. Indeed she cleared all the standard security checks through the check-in process and eventually was only discovered to have a bomb in her bag because she was flying on an El Al flight. It was an El Al security officer performing additional checks on passengers boarding the Tel Aviv flight who became suspicious because of the excessive weight of the bag Ann Marie was travelling with. On closer inspection the calculator was discovered with an electric cable attached to it leading down into the lower portion of the bag. Completely without knowing it, Ann Marie Murphy was carrying a bag loaded with high explosives that was intended to kill 395 passengers and crew. Inspection of the timing device showed that the bomb was timed to detonate approximately two and a quarter hours into the flight while the aircraft was cruising at an altitude of thirty nine thousand feet between Italy and Greece.
The story has a double happy ending as it happens because British police caught up with Nizar Hindawi on the morning of the 18th of April and he was subsequently tried and convicted for the attempted plot. He was sentenced later that year to 45 years in prison where he languishes to this day. Ann Marie Murphy never faced any charges.
An interesting little tale I thought and plus, next time check-in officials at airports seem to be asking you seemingly inane questions, at least you know why because it was after this event in 1986, that such questions became routine during the check-in process.
Dan.
Thanks for posting this. I've never flown alone and don't intend on flying again until some of the restrictions are lifted and until they start treating people like human beings again, but I would've gotten upset if asked that, cause I would've thought it was because of my blindness and that no one else was asked these questions. Good trivia.
and now i know!
thanks for sharing this.
I figured it started with an event such as that, but I had no idea what the details were. Where did you find that? Just curious.
What do you mean "until they start treating people like human beings again"?
I just came from a trip and I have been on a dozen flights in the last 6 months. Apart from some stand offs at JFK over staff insistance I be pushed around in a wheel chair, everyone has treated me with perfect respect. On Southwset flights I get to preboard and choose whatever seat I wish for. I have actually not been asked these questions recently so I don't know if they are standard procedure any more, certainly not for U.S. domestic flights.
I feel little to no difference in security checks inconvenience since 9/11 except once when our bag was delayed a day, but that was a day after they arrested a lot of guys in the UK intending to blow up trans atlantic flights in August 2006.
So I absolutely do not understand the jab about peoplenot being treated fairly or humanely, that is a misconception.
I really have nothing but respect for airport staff and find it amazing how easy and convenient it is to travel by air when you are blind.
Well, I'm glad you've had nothing but good experiences. I've definitely had good ones, but I've also had some less than enjoyable ones.
Apparently it is standard to ask the person if they packed their own bags, but I didn't realize why that had started. Thanks for sharing.
Well, I think these are supposed to be standard questions B, though I'm sure they are questions that are not asked as often as they are. After all, check-in officials are having to deal with a large number of people in a short space of time and besides, I strongly doubt that they ever get any answers other than routine ones. So in the end they even probably wonder at the point of asking. Certainly I've travelled enough, and been asked those questions enough that my responses to them are totally automatic. Yet in truth I'm sure there have been occasions when my attention hasn't completely been on my bag, or I've been carrying something that somebody else has asked me to take and yet I'd never say that to the people at the check-in desk. It isn't that I'm being deliberately evasive of course, it is just, as I say, that I am giving routine responses to questions that I know are coming.
As for where I found this, the answer is I didn't as such. I came across a reference to the Ann Marie Murphy story in a documentary I was listening too yesterday and it peaked my interest. So I made use of Google and put together the story above. It just interested me and I thought it might interest others too.
Dan.
I don't remember ever being asked those two questions, although I know people who have.
I've never been asked those questions before, but at least I know where it came from if ever I do get asked them.
Now, all we need to figure out, is why they ask you what they ask you when you go through customs to visit another country.
what do they ask you?
I will not be flying again unless I can help it. I'm all for security but the airlines are out of control.
Those questions are not asked anymore at airports, because all bags are screened. Interesting story though, and I remember when they were standard.
You have to go through security screening, put your shoes and jacket in a basket,, take out your laptop, then your bags, your stuff and you, go through the security gate. If you have no metal in your pockets you go through without a beep, then you put your stuff on and leave. I do not understand what sort of problems people have with that and I'd be worried if they stopped doing this. They did this too prior to 9/11 so it's not really as if anything's changed much.
It's fine if people decide not to fly but I do not want those who state those things to influence those who need to fly and discourage them from it, because they think they have to be strip and cavity searched twice, tied up in chains, put to the question with a hot iron and not allowed to take anything with them, if they have to fly.
Those who have nothing to hide have to suffer perhaps extra 5 minutes of wait time (if you get assistance at the airport travelling by yourself you usually bypass the lines anyway). Those who have something to hide, well, good thing we can find it before you get on the plane eh.
Funny how people say if you have nothing to hide then you shouldn't have to worry.
Oh so violating people is fine as long as they didn't do anything wrong?
I just flew a week ago. The security was the same as always. No body scanners or anything. I just put my stuff in the bin, walked through the gates, retrieved my things on the other side, and I was on my way. Is it that they haven't actually installed these scanners yet?
Chelsea, what I meant by the customs questions is when they ask you stuff like. Where are you going? How long were you there? Who did you go see? How did they meet you? What relation are they to you? How long have you known them? Would you visit them again? What made you decide this particular length of trip? I can understand the simple questions, like...where are you going, and, for how long are you going, but honestly, what difference is it going to make if they know the rest of that stuff or not? It's not like I know people because we used to hang out and do drugs all the time. Lol.
lol yeah that's a bit much but I never was asked all that.
Sometimes I am, and sometimes I'm not. That's what really makes me think the questions aren't necessary.