Southwest Airlines Planes May Have Arabic Symbols, Feds Investigating

Southwest Airlines has quietly been investigating several strange acts of vandalism on their aircraft for months, and federal agencies have gotten involved.

ABC15 in Phoenix first broke the news that the mysterious marks, which appeared on several of Southwest's 737 aircraft, seem to be either Arabic or Arabic-type symbols. A company-wide internal memo from Southwest Airlines Executive Vice President Mike Van de Ven, obtained by ABC 15, explains that "these unauthorized markings typically appear as symbols or words tagged on the exterior of the aircraft." However, the letter also asks staffers to be vigilant about any suspicious activity and reveals that both local and federal agencies are involved in the investigation.

KNX 1070 reporter Charles Feldman's exclusive report reveals that the etchings seem "to have been done with a chemical process that reveals the text once an auxiliary power unit is turned on and heats up the outside skin of the aircraft." Feldman also notes that Southwest Airlines has ordered its workers not to discuss the symbols with the media.

Brandy King, a spokesperson for Southwest Airlines, tells The Huffington Post that "the activity has been going on for several months," although she could not provide an exact start time. "We are tracking our fleet and logging when and where the vandalism is taking place," she adds, but "other than that, we're working with the appropriate authorities to investigate the acts of vandalism."

ABC 15 posted their report online. WATCH:

Comments

[FaceTheTruth00]

01:26 PM on 09/26/2011

I'm thinking the media reporting on this is a bad idea. If there is something sketchy going on, the people who are doing this have just been alerted to the fact that someone has noticed.

If this is public knowledge now, the odds of catching whoever is doing it, is significantly reduced. They know people are watching and on alert now. If it had been kept quiet, they might have been able to monitor/install cameras and catch people in the act. That's out the window now.

There's no need to get paranoid, but the situation does bear monitoring and investigating. Not just for the symbols/writing itself; but for the fact that people are using some kind of chemicals to burn the images into the planes. What other damage could these chemicals do? And, if people can get close enough to inscribe images, what else can they coat the plane with? Explosive materials? Acid?

[danceswithdata]

01:36 AM on 09/25/2011

How in the world does anyone graffiti a commercial aircraft? I thought that security was so tight in and around the hangars and runways that it would be impossible to get near one? If this is an inside job and it certainly appears to be, the perps are mighty clever and stealthy. How do they expect not to get caught? Ballsy, very ballsy!

[EJavaM07]

01:31 PM on 09/24/2011

A shame we don't still have GWB at the helm: we'd all be on red alert right now, laying in a trench someplace, w/ a rifle, and some k-rations, waiting for those a-rabs to attack us again just like they did before.

As if 19 a-rabs could have pulled off what they supposedly did, against our 'best-in-the-world military'.

[Ashleyexe]

02:35 AM on 09/24/2011

It's just the green men form space trying to communicate with us... No biggie

[actuallyreadit]

10:00 PM on 09/23/2011

This just in, mysterious Arabic messages translated. On the underside of every plane a message, apparently aimed at fellow workers, has been written as a warning. It reads: "Before pulling blue handle to empty lavatory tanks, attach hose securely!! Don't get fooled like I did!"

Message received.

[wildsnorlax]

06:35 PM on 09/23/2011

You can't even see the symbols unless the skin is heated. What a point?!

[KupoKupo]

04:36 PM on 09/23/2011

I interact with the ground crews at the local airport - including the SW ground crew. I've seen all kinds of crazy stuff - people driving cars through barriers (mostly they were "lost"), peeing and defecating on the runway, people having sex in the field where the planes take off (great rush I guess?). Fences, surveillance, and security can only do so much - if people are truly determined or even simply lost - they somehow find their way in. The job is only boring most of the time with intermittent bouts of insanity.

Interesting that it says it began to increase recently. There was an issue recently with a SW employee because they used their religion as a reason to take time off - come to find out their religion has no rule of the sort that this man tried to use. After it was discovered that he lied the rest of the crews gave him the cold shoulder. SW management probably has a good idea who is doing it and where it is coming from. The crews are pretty tight, so anything that happened was most likely observed by someone.

[Tzimisce]

03:34 PM on 09/23/2011

news flash: Every single airplane in commission on the planet has Arabic symbols on it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_numbers

did I just blow your mind?!

[Fire Krotch]

12:43 PM on 09/23/2011

Invisible ething fluid? Kinda sophisicated for terrorists, you sure it's not - get out your tin-foil hats folks - extraterrestials??!!!

[Patrick Labbe]

11:15 AM on 09/23/2011

It wasn't too long ago that a Jewish Orthodox boy was thrown off a flight for wearing a Tillit.

[mgilse]

10:25 AM on 09/23/2011

It's interesting how Southwest tries to down play this incident as an act of vandalism. The writing is on the wall, or literally on their airplanes that something is up with regard to another possible act of terrorism. Corporate greed is being played out in two forms here, one, being the down playing of the incident and second, sending their fleet to cheap low cost countries where it has been reported that service workers linked to Al-Queda are employed.

[Bike Commuter]

11:27 AM on 09/23/2011

Do you have any information about Southwest supposedly sending aircraft overseas for service the way you describe? My understanding was that Soutwest performs that Dallas Love Field is the main maintenance facility for Southwest. http://www.redorbit.com/news/business/1168539/southwest_airlines_continues_to_grow_its_maintenance_facilities_and_enhances ................... I don't see any downplaying of the incident. It IS vandalism. The nature of the incident is obviously concerning to the company since they called in the FBI to investigate. There isn't much else to do at this point.

[myquest4good]

10:24 PM on 09/24/2011

Bike Commuter, you are absolutely correct. The planes are serviced at Dallas' Love Field. They go through a very vigorous routine on their aircraft. Be sure they will find out who is doing it as they take safety very seriously. As a former employee, I can tell you for sure that they do not take things like this lightly and they will do whatever it takes to get to the bottom of it. SWA is still the best air service there is. Always will be.

[Rob NoName]

01:34 AM on 09/23/2011

** BREAKING NEWS ** The TSA, along with the Department of Homeland Security have just announced that the first of the "Arabic Symbols" have been successfully translated. According to sources, the symbols roughly translate to say " clean me"........

[Xtazia]

03:06 PM on 09/23/2011

LOL!!!

[JetBlue]

12:35 PM on 09/29/2011

TSA along with the Dept. of Homeland Security can read......? I doubt that..... lol

[Bike Commuter]

09:37 PM on 09/22/2011

If I had to guess, I would say that the authorities have already translated the writings, but have discovered the writings, in addition to being in Arabic, are also in code. They are probably are trying to figure what the code words DAL, HOU, LAX, and ATL mean.

[Starling5]

01:25 AM on 09/23/2011

Brilliant!

[whyus]

08:21 PM on 09/22/2011

I couldn't watch the video on my IPad, but that story was extremely interesting. I hope they do a follow up on it soon.

[dlb4900]

02:39 PM on 09/23/2011

I hope so too. I will not be flying on any commercial aircraft until they do

[Hetneo]

08:07 PM on 09/22/2011

Now I feel very secure in knowledge that unauthorized personnel can freely access airplanes while they are in hangars :\

[Bike Commuter]

09:11 PM on 09/22/2011

Most likely it was not unauthorized personnel. More likely it was ground crew or some other maintenance personnel.