FBI: Woman Urinated On Floor In Logan Plane Scare !!!!!

[Daanyeer]

Aug 17, 2006 6:41 pm US/Eastern



......."According to the affidavits, Mayo also urinated on the floor of the cabin and made references the crew believed to be related to al Qaeda and September 11th."




(CBS4) BOSTON There are new details emerging about a Vermont womanÂ’s bizarre behavior that forced a trans-Atlantic flight to be diverted to Logan Airport Wednesday.

In federal court documents released Thursday, investigators said 59-year-old Catherine Mayo of Braintree, Vermont was "biting her fingers, rubbing her feet and in a constant state of movement" aboard United flight 923, which was heading from London to Dulles Airport in Virginia. The pilot declared an in-flight emergency and landed the plane at Logan.

Mayo was taken into custody, questioned inside the airport, and held overnight in Boston.

During a court appearance Thursday, Mayo wore a Rolling Stones T-shirt and no shoes. A federal judge scheduled a probable cause hearing for next Thursday, and ordered the woman to remain behind bars until then. She's been charged with interfering with a flight crew.

Her attorney, federal public defender Page Kelley, said Mayo was "just barely lucid" when they spoke. "She's very agitated," Kelley said. "She's got some very serious mental health problems."

Kelley says Mayo likely will undergo a psychological exam before next week's hearing.

Mayo's son, Josh, 31, described his mother as a peace activist and said she had been in Pakistan since March. She traveled there often since making a pen pal before Sept. 11, 2001, he said. The pen pal hasn't been allowed to visit the U.S., he added.

"I guess she just had a bit of a bad time on the plane, and everybody's a little paranoid," her son said.

According to the affidavits, Mayo also urinated on the floor of the cabin and made references the crew believed to be related to al Qaeda and September 11th.

In the affidavit filed by FBI Special Agent Daniel Choldin, he wrote that flight attendants noticed Mayo about 90 minutes into the flight because she was pushing against the aircraft bulkhead. When the attendant told her to return to her seat, Mayo said she wanted to speak to an air marshal and made statements about knowing that people wanted to see what was in her bag.

After a day filled with conflicting reports about what she was carrying, FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz confirmed Thursday that authorities found a screwdriver and an unspecified number of cigarette lighters in her bag, items which are banned under new security regulations. Marcinkiewicz also confirmed that matches were found Mayo's bag.

Later during the flight, according to the affidavit, Mayo asked a flight attendant: "Is this a training flight for United Flight 93?" The flight attendant didn't know if she made a mistake because the flight was actually Flight 923, or if she was referring to Flight 93, the hijacked plane that crashed in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11.

During that time, she was "biting her fingers, rubbing her feet and in a constant state of movement. She appeared very agitated," the affidavit said.

She wrote in a note and said to flight attendants that she had been in a country illegally, and later said she had photographs of Pakistan. Her U.S. passport indicated that on Aug. 15 she had left Pakistan and entered the United Kingdom, according to the affidavit.

Flight attendants summoned the captain, who spoke to Mayo. During the conversation, she made reference to there being "six steps to building some unspecified thing."

"She made reference to being with people associated with two words. She stated that she could not say what the two words were because the last time that she had said the two words she had been kicked off of a flight in the United Arab Emirates," according to the affidavit.

The captain and purser both believed that she was referring to al-Qaeda, Choldin wrote.

About 35 minutes later, when she tried to go to the bathroom, the flight attendants directed her to a different lavatory. Instead, she pulled down her pants and urinated on the floor, Choldin wrote in the affidavit, which was based on his interviews and those of other federal officials.

At that point, the captain ordered her restrained. Two male passengers helped a flight attendant tackle Mayo and restrain her in plastic cuffs. She remained seated in the galley area of plane until the flight landed, according to the affidavit.

The outburst on the flight -- just a week after London authorities said they foiled a terror plot to blow up trans-Atlantic flights -- prompted a massive security scare.

All the passengers and luggage were removed from the plane. The passengers were interviewed at Logan and the luggage was spread out on the runway and searched by TSA canine teams.

Several hours later, the flight departed for Dulles Airport outside Washington D.C. and landed there around 7 p.m.

The flight had taken off from Heathrow Airport in London, where there's been tight security in place since last week's arrests in a plot to blow up trans-Atlantic flights. As many as 17 people have been arrested in Pakistan in connection with the London terror plot, but federal officials have said they have no indications that Mayo had any links to terrorism.

Mayo does have clear connections to Pakistan. The Daily Times of Pakistan has published columns she has written, including one on March 18, 2003, in which she criticized President Bush.

U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan said Mayo could face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted. He also expressed some question about her mental health and said he hoped to learn more about her before the next court appearance.

"We believe it's important during that time period to have a doctor examine her," he said.

(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)