Austria denies inspecting Morales plane during landing

[Cali_Democrat]

Source: Buenos Aires Herald

Austrian officials did not search the plane which carried Evo Morales in the hunt for US whistleblower Edward Snowden, the President of the European country has stated in an attempt to ease the diplomatic crisis caused by the incident.

An airport official did board the plane on Tuesday to find out why it had landed in Vienna reporting technical problems, "but there was no formal inspection," Austrain president Heinz Fischer explained.

Fischer's comments appear to be trying to clarify contradictory reports about how the Bolivian president was treated on his way back to South America, after attending a conference in Moscow this week.

Bolivia protested after several European countries refused to allow the presidential plane to cross their airspace, in the middle of rumours that Morales was transporting Snowden, an ex-intelligence contractor accused of espionage by the United States.

Read more: http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/135471/austria-denies-inspecting-morales-plane-during-landing

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This is interesting. According to the President of Austria, the plane landed due to technical reasons. This also confirms the pilot's account:

Control tower: Do you need any assistance?

Pilot: Not at this moment. We need to land because we cannot get a correct indication of the fuel indication so as a precaution we need to land.

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2013/07/tale-re-routed-bolivian-presidents-plane-falling-apart/66838/

[RobertEarl]

1. They did not tell you cali_D ?

Snowden was on board and all this extra is just stuff they cooked up to make you think he wasn't. Hard to believe they fooled such a sharp-eyed detective like you, isn't it?

[Cali_Democrat]

4. This is not about me. n/t

[cyclezealot]

15. Stop acting like a trained Seal

when being thrown a stinky Fish. This is only Anti Obama if Obama makes it such. He need do the right thing and get a grip on private intelligence that are ripping off the American people to the tune of about $80 billion a year. Just to record your phone calls to Mom..
.Here are the major stories linking you to what Snowden revealed.. Where is the evidence that Snowden did anything wrong .. ?

.
.http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/06/nsa-phone-records-verizon-court-order

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/20/fisa-court-nsa-without-warrant

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/27/nsa-data-mining-authorised-obama

[cyclezealot]

11. Isn't this like the Third Time, this post

has been posted by the same person.??....
If so, trying to prove something ? Its not working.

[MannyGoldstein]

2. "No *formal* inspection"

[mazzarro]

16. Exactly - but what about "informal" inspection?

In the form of "checking out" the mechanical problem; or the "sly offer of coffee on the plane"; etc?

[snappyturtle]

3. Read the link. Efforts were made to inspect the plane but Morales held

his ground. That is how I understood it. I also understood that it was not the Austrians insisting on inspection.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023191405

[Igel]

6. Yeah.

The strong-arm tactics of the Spanish ambassador talking to Morales in the airport lounge.

The initial reports made it sound like the ambassador showed up at the gateway, knocked, and held out a cup of coffee. Wink-wink, nudge-nudge. Instead, the ambassador suggested that he look over the plane, perhaps while they had a cup of coffee. Morales could just invite him on board, the ambassador would glance around, voila. No "formal" inspection. Why, exactly, Morales hung out in the airport is a question we'll probably never know the answer to. He probably could easily have gone to his embassy there.

In this case, it makes sense for a tech person to show up and confirm that (a) there was a problem and (b) the problem was no more. Given that most of the time there's not a separate pilots' door that leads directly into the cockpit, that the plane was empty, and most people upon entering a plane (or any enclosed space) tend to swivel their heads to see what's there, that there was a kind of "inspection". Similarly, every time I've boarded a plane I've inspected it--I routinely look to see where I have to go, look and mentally note the stewards' area, glance to see if the cockpit door's open and what's going on in there, then proceed to stand and wait for the aisle to clear or take off to find my seat. My "inspection" takes, oh, perhaps a second. Perhaps 2, if I know I'll have to wait a while.

I have a suspicion that the entire gauge glitch may have been a face-saving gesture. It was there. Then it wasn't. If Morales insisted on not turning back and the pilot knew he was low on fuel, voila--instantly, a reason for landing that keeps Morales' pride and dignity intact and makes no mention of the fly-over problems.

How, exactly, this request turns into "his flight was redirected" in media reports is still a problem with me. The only reason that would be especially relevant and be news is if the plane were proceeding as planned and then the authorities in control of Austrian airspace told the pilot to proceed to the Vienna airport and land. If the pilot requested permission to land, of course the flight tower would direct him where to go. Suddenly the "redirection" is entirely non-news.

Now all I need is to work out the timeline. If the pilot requested permission to land in Austria *after* the various W. European countries gave permission for the plane to proceed through their airspace then I have one take on the issue. If permission came *after* he needed to land, then it's another. I know I've seen some of the times, but not others. Then there's always the "wiggle room"--if the French authorized the fly-over at 7:30 and the pilot requested permission at 8:30, is that hour really long enough for all the various levels of bureaucracy to have passed the information along to the control towers and pilot? Just a hypothetical, that. Not worth my time, probably.

[snappyturtle]

8. Thank you for your thoughtful and detailed reply.

I think all sides did their best not to make the landing an international 'event'. However, the Spanish ambassador wanted in the worst way to board and in the end had to take Morales' word as a head of state that Snowden was not aboard.

I think Morales stayed with the plane to protect it from inspection.

[zeemike]

5. And the technical l difficulties were that the flight plan had been canceled in mid air

And all they could do was fly around in circles until they ran out of fuel.

[SaveOurDemocracy]

9. Yup. It seems the OP author believes his plane had infinite fuel to circle indefinitely.

[Cali_Democrat]

10. Actually according to the flight map

They didn't fly around in circles. They were over Austria and then turned around to land at the airport in Vienna. They didn't circle Vienna.

And I'm not sure what you mean when you say the flight plan was canceled mid air. Do you have a link?

[zeemike]

12. They filed a flight plan before they left the ground

And Air Traffic control clears them to proceed when they take off...but while airborne the flight over France or Spain was canceled so they could not proceed on the planed flight.
That is how it works...
And if you do not have clearance to proceed then you go into a holding pattern to await clearance...which is my guess what they did....that is standard procedures, as I remember them from my experiences.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holding_(aviation)

[JDPriestly]

13. The French apologized, so we know that they canceled the flight plan.

It is my understanding that Portugal was where Morales planned a fuel stop and that canceled. From there, Morales tried France, Spain and Italy, and was refused the right to fly in their air space.

Austria's Interior Minister was specifically quoted in Die Presse and possibly in Der Standard (two trustworthy Austrian newspapers) that the American ambassador requested the extradition of Snowden from Morales' plane.

I posted the original news story and the link several times.

I'm wondering why the story continues to be garbled, why people continue to hypothesize, create their own theory when i have responded to previous posts with good sources. I guess it is hard to believe that your government has done something shameful. We just don't want to believe it. I was that way with the Iraq War, but I had to acknowledge that Bush most probably really lied us into a useless war.

My post from Die Presse with a translation of part of the article is Post #32 here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023178681#post32

And here is the crux of my post:

The Falcon 900 should never have flown over Austria. But then the pilot supposedly reported problems with the gas gauge and requested permission to land in Vienna's Schwechat airport. On board the plane which was coming from Moskow and on which was written, "multinational state of Bolivia": President Evo Morales.

It landed around 11 P.M. Soon thereafter, the Vienna foreign ministry received an urgent call. On the other end of the line: US Ambassador William Eacho. As Die Presse discovered, he claimed with great certainty that Edward Snowden, the person sought by the US for having uncovered the most recent surveillance scandal was on board (the plane). Eacho referred to a diplomatic note in which the USA requested the extradition of Snowden.

Die Falcon 900 hätte Österreich nur überfliegen sollen. Doch dann meldeten die Piloten angeblich Probleme mit der Treibstoffanzeige und baten um Landeerlaubnis in Wien-Schwechat. An Bord der aus Moskau kommenden Maschine mit der Aufschrift "Estado plurinacional de Bolivia": Präsident Evo Morales.

Sie landete gegen 23 Uhr. Kurz danach ging im Wiener Außenamt ein dringlicher Anruf ein. Am anderen Ende der Leitung: US-Botschafter William Eacho. Wie "Die Presse" erfuhr, behauptete er mit großer Bestimmtheit, dass Edward Snowden an Bord sei, der von den USA gesuchte Aufdecker jüngster Abhörskandale. Eacho habe auf eine diplomatische Note verwiesen, in der die USA die Auslieferung Snowdens verlangten.

http://diepresse.com/home/politik/aussenpolitik/1426275/USA-verlangten-von-Wien-Snowdens-Auslieferung

Morales could not finish his trip with stopping to refuel. That is why the pilot changed the message. He needed to convey the urgency of landing to refuel.

Morales spent about 13 hours in the Vienna airport and insists that he did not permit anyone to search his plane.

[zeemike]

14. And I read your post.

But you know why it is being garbled and ignored...we all do.

[Thinkingabout]

7. Looks like the make up stories by the Spy and Lie group are being debunked, you just can't trust

Bunch.