Passengers evacuate plane after finding ownerless cellphone

Just in case last month's airport scare wasn't enough, today we're finding that an Alaska Airlines flight from San Jose was evacuated upon landing "after a passenger found an unclaimed cell phone tucked in his seat." Both the FBI and Port of Seattle police eventually concluded that the mobile "posed no safety threat," but apparently, it was worth looking into. When found, the handset "appeared to have been taken apart, put back together and shoved into the seat," but after all was said and done, no humans were injured, other flights at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport were only delayed for about ten minutes and some poor soul is wishing he / she had opted for that cellphone insurance back in the day.

[Via SlashPhone]

[root @ Oct 5th 2007 3:37PM]

fear is all you got...

1st :p

[Dave @ Oct 5th 2007 3:39PM]

lolz

Terror wins again.

[Eric @ Oct 5th 2007 7:36PM]

bahaha

[Fatima @ Oct 5th 2007 3:41PM]

Yep, Terrorists win again. They want you to feel scared when you fly.
If you are scared of flying b/c of terrorists they have won.

[giuliop @ Oct 5th 2007 4:17PM]

Hm, and if you're not scared and your plane blows up, then you win?

[Derbeste @ Oct 5th 2007 4:36PM]

Seriously....just because you're not paranoid, that doesn't mean no one is out to get you.

I was the first to laugh my ass off over the whole Boston-scared-shitless-over-aqua-tean-light-bright thing.

But this caution had real merrit.

There is a fine line between confidence and idiocy.

[Paul O @ Oct 5th 2007 4:45PM]

>giuliop
There's a much higher probability that they stuff the plane with thermite than to have it blown up with some half broken handset that got "shoved into" the seat.

Or better still, just release a whole bunch of snakes onto the plane, that will teach them for not believing in Hollywood.

[chris @ Oct 5th 2007 8:34PM]

Terrorism is just another creation of the US Government to cover up the real word: jihad. These people couldn't care less if we are scared of them...they just want us all dead or converted to Islam.

Just one person's opinion...

[dataminer49er @ Oct 5th 2007 3:41PM]

"an Alaska Airlines flight from San Jose was evacuated upon landing"

uhh don't you get off a plane once it lands anyway?

[Mcyoda @ Oct 5th 2007 3:45PM]

Not with Engadget you, you continue on to the next hub.

[Hacksaw @ Oct 5th 2007 4:12PM]

Not if the flight is going onto another destination.

[MacGuru @ Oct 5th 2007 4:45PM]

@Hacksaw

You have obvously not flown since 2000... They make EVERYBODY get off EVERY plane when it lands, even if that plane will take YOU to another destination.

[Samurai Jack @ Oct 5th 2007 5:16PM]

Living in Seattle, where this was "Breaking News!!!11!!OMG!Ponies!" they evacuated the plane away from the terminal, sequestered the passengers on a bus and then locked them away in the south terminal so that they could be questioned. Or until the all clear was given, whichever came first. Not a pleasant thing.

[dataminer49er @ Oct 5th 2007 6:34PM]

Not true Hacksaw. I flew from STL to Ft Lauderdale via a stop in Tampa Bay. They let us stay on the plane in Tampa while the new passengers boarded. Perhaps you may have flown during an elevated alert period where the rules were more stringent, but my flight was at a yellow level period.

[dataminer49er @ Oct 5th 2007 6:38PM]

Sorry Hack I meant that for Mac.

[Joe Schober @ Oct 5th 2007 6:39PM]

@MacGuru: Not true... as recently as 6 weeks ago, I've flown on a commercial plane that stopped in one city, unloaded some passengers and loaded others, and continued on, without getting off the plane myself. Done it many times since 9/11 (what I assume you're referring to).

[Steve @ Oct 5th 2007 3:43PM]

Would someone who voluntarily dismantled a cell phone be that concerned about an insurance claim? Me thinks not...

[Jesus Christ @ Oct 5th 2007 3:43PM]

Can you hear me now?

[thethirdmoose @ Oct 5th 2007 3:45PM]

would it be illegal to buy cheap old phones on ebay and leave them in planes?

[Daryl Herbert @ Oct 5th 2007 3:55PM]

It's illegal to deliberately hoax airport security.

There is a difference between vigilance and fear. Taking note of things that are out of the ordinary is simply vigilance.

If terrorists can leave things behind on planes (small bombs, knives, guns, etc.) that would be a threat to airport security. Paying attention is a good thing.

[Bb @ Oct 5th 2007 4:03PM]

Shame there was no security scare when I left my PSP on the plane :(

[Samsam @ Oct 5th 2007 4:13PM]

Will the FAA just get it over with and require us all to fly naked with no carry-ons? No more security woes!

[Matt @ Oct 5th 2007 4:18PM]

I'm all for the naked flying initiative

[Kevin @ Oct 5th 2007 4:22PM]

I am a hairy 400 pound man that takes three to four flights per week. Are you truly certain you support this concept?

[Kennyb123 @ Oct 5th 2007 4:25PM]

Are you two prepared to take the good with the REALLY REALLY bad? Chances are, in coach, you'll get a 400 pound man who's sweaty manflesh, no longer contained by clothing, envelops you. :-)

[Samsam @ Oct 5th 2007 4:28PM]

Oh I'm prepared.

[Tired_ @ Oct 5th 2007 4:35PM]

You probably said that to be funny, but that would probably make the TSA lineups a heck of a lot faster. Passengers could be given some kind of smock or something when they board.

[Derbeste @ Oct 5th 2007 4:41PM]

Naked flying wouldn't help.

The next step would be outrage by obese people because of "weight profiling" as they checked all their folds.

And of course, the next step to security would be the inevitable random xray testing and cavity searches.

It's all for your safety you know?

P.S. sorry for posting this twice....but the website didn't get this in the right place the first time.

[Larry Kelley @ Oct 5th 2007 4:15PM]

thankfully "no humans" were harmed... less evolved and intellectually inferior creatures be damned, but we must keep the almighty human (who is afraid of cell phones) safe

[Anthony @ Oct 5th 2007 4:31PM]

The story would have just been too sad if they reported on the loss of two of every animal.

[Kennyb123 @ Oct 5th 2007 4:26PM]

Wow Kevin... I should have refreshed before posting. That's kinda freaky we basically said the same thing.

[Derbeste @ Oct 5th 2007 4:39PM]

Naked flying wouldn't help.

The next step would be outrage by obese people because of "weight profiling" as they checked all their folds.

And of course, the next step to security would be the inevitable random cavity searches.

[nezromatron @ Oct 5th 2007 6:11PM]

Umm.. Don't we already have a bunch of screening that happens before the cell phone would get on the plane? I mean it's not like the water they serve on the plane is explosive, where as the one I buy from 7-11 is?

[Brad Liggett @ Oct 5th 2007 6:22PM]

In July I mistakenly left my Blackberry in the seat next to mine in a terminal at SFO when I decided to have a bite to eat before my flight. A few minutes later a British man who saw me get up from that area tracked me down in the restaurant to tell me I had better come pick up the phone I had left because another passenger in the terminal had called 911 to report it as a possible bomb.

[Dr Buzz0 @ Oct 5th 2007 6:22PM]

It's a cell phone! OMG! EVERYONE PANIC

Considering the size of cell phones now a day, even if packed the whole thing with a detonator and explosive, it wouldn't even be nearly as dangerous as a hand grenade. i mean seriously people, lets think. What do you think? It's packed with nerve gas?

On a related note, someone discovered a small sausage-shaped object with tapered ends in the restroom of an aircraft. After evacuating the aircraft and airport, authorities determined the object was in fact a turd and suggested that somebody forgot to flush.

[Sam Winter @ Oct 9th 2007 2:49AM]

no shit! It's a god damn phone!!! What is wrong with people.
This is as bad as the Boston "Lightbright" scare. People are so fricken ignorant. They see a couple christmas lights attached to cardboard with a couple wires and a "button cell" battery and they FREAK OUT. I mean WHERE IN THE HELL COULD THE 30KG OF EXPLOSIVE GO ON A PIECE OF CARDBOARD????

It has all to do with
1) Ignorance of science and technology and how physics works. You can't put an effective bomb in a small, 5mm thin piece of cardboard with christmas lights.
2) hollywood and the stupid "24" type show and movies that show these contrived "bombs" with a circuit board and an alarm clock. lol. So then people associate ANY PCB with a few wires and capacitors, as something that MUST BE a bomb.
Just like how people hear that IEDS in iraq are detonated with a cheap GSM phone. So now instead of the actual explosive, they see a CELLPHONE left on a plane and think "Iraq IED--> cellphone --> bomb --> OH MY GOD" and freak out. WTF?

I'm not saying it's a bad thing to be cautious, but these people are WAYYYYY overboard PARANOID.
Just as some people said above, if you are evacuating planes for a cellphone, THE TERRORISTS HAVE ALREADY WON. just like if you throw out your core values and civil liberties and start detaining people indefinitely and torturing them, THE TERRORISTS HAVE ALREADY WON.

Apparently FASCISM isn't FASCISM when the Neocons do it....

[Wwhat @ Oct 5th 2007 10:28PM]

A cellphone is big enough to hold military grade explosives that will blow a hole in it in flight and kill a few people or even down it if circumstances are unfortunate.
And yeah with the right biological/chemical agents (like a sony battery for instance) it's big enough to make quite a mess in a closed environment like a plane.
And I've NEVER seen a cellphone that looked like it was modded, that IS very peculiar, and then combined with left behind and tucked in a seat.. I'd say this was finally a valid scare.

I'm assuming that it actually did look tampered with and that wasn't an embellishment meant to make the cops look better, or the story more juicy.

[Wwhat @ Oct 5th 2007 10:30PM]

Oh I see seattlewriter says it actually was an embellishment of sorts, the 'tampered' with thing.

[SeattleWriter @ Oct 5th 2007 6:42PM]

Being a reporter in Seattle who covered this "story," I can tell you there is a bit behind the "taken apart" aspect of it. The dude who found it stepped on it. He tried to put it back together while apologizing to the person next to him, who told him it wasn't her phone. So he turned in the lost phone, but didn't want to say that he broke it.

[malek @ Oct 5th 2007 8:34PM]

I guess then it wasn't an iPhone?

[Robosexual @ Oct 6th 2007 12:38AM]

It should be noted that "Terrorism" is a form of rule made popular during the French revolution. It's original use was to refer to governments that used terror tactics to keep the people in line. Planes crashing into buildings is not terrorism. Terrorism is when the government scares it's people into submission. Linguistics shape reality.

[Garst @ Oct 6th 2007 1:35AM]

Hey! This is like the US Cellular commercial only on a plane instead of a taxi.

[Paul @ Oct 6th 2007 8:47AM]

If something had happened on the plane and it was linked to a modified cell phone shoved into a seat everyone would be saying "OMG HOW DID NO BODY NOTICE THIS!"