Flatulence, not turbulence, forces plane to land
Passenger lighted matches to hide odor
By SAMUEL SHU
For The Tennessean
Flatulence brought 99 passengers on an American Airlines flight to an
unscheduled visit to Nashville early Monday morning.
American Flight 1053, from Washington Reagan National Airport and bound for
Dallas/Fort Worth, made an emergency landing here after passengers reported
smelling struck matches, said Lynne Lowrance, a spokeswoman for the Nashville
International Airport Authority.
The plane landed safely. The FBI, Transportation Safety Administration and
airport authority responded to the emergency, Lowrance said.
The passengers and five crew members were brought off the plane, together
with all the luggage, to go through security checks again. Bomb-sniffing dogs
found spent matches.
The FBI questioned a passenger who admitted she struck the matches in an
attempt to conceal body odor, Lowrance said. The woman lives near Dallas and
has a medical condition.
The flight took off again, but the woman was not allowed back on the plane.
"American has banned her for a long time," Lowrance said.
She was not charged but could have been. While it is legal to bring as many
as four books of paper safety matches onto an aircraft, it is illegal to strike
a match in an airplane, Lowrance said
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