VodkaPundit links to three wire service articles which state that a shot was fired onboard an American Airlines jet parked at the terminal at Miami International Airport, and theorizes:
We’ve known for a couple years that al Qaeda has gotten friendly with ELN, FARC, and some elements of the Huga Chavez regime in Venezuela.
Orrin Judd links to this AP article:
A passenger who claimed to have a bomb in a carry-on bag was shot by a federal air marshal today on a jetway connected to an American Airlines plane that had just arrived from Colombia, officials said. Media reports quoted sources as saying the person’s wounds were fatal.
Homeland Security Department spokesman Brian Doyle said after the plane had parked at the gate, a passenger indicated there was a bomb in the bag. The passenger was confronted by air marshals but ran off the plane, Doyle said.
A team of air marshals pursued and ordered the passenger to get on the ground. The passenger did not comply and was shot when apparently reaching into a bag, Doyle said.
The plane, Flight 924, had just arrived from Medellin, Colombia, and was headed on to Orlando.
Airport and Miami-Dade County police officials said they had no immediate comment. American Airlines officials confirmed the shooting was on a jetway.
“All I know is that it was on the jet bridge, outside the aircraft,” American spokesman Tim Wagner said. “I don’t know yet if the passenger had been on the plane and was getting off, or was starting to board the aircraft.”
Martin Gonzalez, spokesman for Colombia’s civil aviation agency, said the flight “left normally with no problems.”
He said he did not have a list of passengers who were aboard the plane.
Update: Andrew Cochran of The Counterterrorism Blog writes “This would be the first time an air marshal ever discharged a weapon on or near a flight”, and that TV news networks are indicating that the 44-year-old suspect was killed.
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