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"I'm here to shoot a pilot,"

johnastovall

Deceased, but remembered fondly here...
Director Mike Figgis was going through security at LAX when he was asked the reason for his visit. "I'm here to shoot a pilot," was his response. Obviously he meant "I'm here to shoot the first episode of a TV series that may or may not be picked up for broadcast distribution," but what the immigration official thought he meant was "I'm here to shoot an airplane pilot with a gun." Yikes! The director of Leaving Las Vegas, Timecode and Internal Affairs was then detained for about five hours until immigration officials could get online and figure out that, yep, "pilot" has more than one meaning."

Full story here.
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Man. And nobody in the TSA does anything without approval form a supervisor, so I can only imagine this went up the ladder all the way to Washington DC... What idiots.
 

helenhill

Senior Member
love it....Typical State of Affairs......
Perfect American Bureaucracy to make one FEEL Safe:ROTFL:

Best- H
 

Bob

Administrator
Staff member
A Japanese passenger was bound and gagged en-route by JAL staff one flight.
He drew a picture of a bomb and showed it to the passenger sitting next to him who just freaked.
When staff came to confront the man, he said "Jordan-Jordan", or so they thought (native Japanese speakers all). He was promptly tackeled and bound.
It turns out he was trying to say "Jodan" which is joke in Japanese.
There are many many more of these sorts of incidents. Just be aware that those who have been charged with flight safety, in whatever capacity, take the rater be safe than sorry attitude.
This guy stayed in custody for a couple of days until the Japanese authorities could do a full investigation.
-bob
 

robsteve

Subscriber
It sounds like he was clearing Customs and immigration, not security. Mike Figgis was born in the UK, so he probably travels on a UK passport.

There is a case where a Canadian was returning to Canada via US connecting flights and the US Immigration officials detained him and rather than deport him to Canada, he was deported to Syria (where he was born and had a second passport for). He was detained and tortured in Syria.

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=3385a126-8a66-4ec7-8f96-3cb0646153bd

Robert
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Guess i better start rephrasing when i say i am here to shoot so and so . I actually do this a lot.
 

ChrisDauer

Workshop Member
Wow. America has become the UK (though not quiet as intelligent).

I finally saw the end to the movie Brazil this weekend. How appropriate.
 
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