QCOSTARICA – The travel news site Viefromthewing.com reported Wednesday that the crew of an American Airlines flight was “robbed at gun point” on the way to the Juan Santamaría airport in Alajuela.
According to the report, the departure was delayed seven and a half hours, but, fortunately, all those affected were unharmed.
Sarah Jantz, a spokeswoman for American Airlines, confirmed to that portal that the crew was the victim of a crime while on their way to the air terminal.
“Our security team is in close contact with the local police and has acted quickly to implement better measures to ensure the safety of our team members,” said Jantz.
View from the Wing reported that transport picked up the crew from their hotel at 3:40 am to make the 5:20 am takeoff time.
Apparently, the van where the workers were going ran over a kind of plastic box on the road, which, supposedly, was placed on the road on purpose. The driver got out to clear it from underneath the vehicle when a man jumped into the driver’s seat with a knife and demanded everyone’s cell phones and electronics.
Then another man opened the van’s sliding side door and jumped inside, and held the gun to the heads of crewmembers until everyone turned over their belongings. Everyone was allowed to keep their wallets.
Their attack complete, the gunmen left, and the driver took the crew back to their hotel.
The portal added that, in general, San José is not one of the most dangerous cities in Latin America, “though being on the roads before dawn is far from ideal.”
The portal speculates that was in on it.
I’d expect that van driver was ‘in on it’, with the item in the road giving him a reason to stop.
The Organimso de Investigacion Judicial (OIJ) has on repeated occasions of attacks on the Ruta 1, including placing objects on the road to stop or slow down a vehicle and people waiting for buses at the bus stops.
The Q was not able to ascertain the hotel the crew was staying at. The attack occurred on the Autopista General Cañas, in the area of Alfredo González Flores bridge, the “platina’ bridge. Due to the nighttime vehicle restrictions, there is little traffic on the Autopista at that time of night, even less traffic police.
Consulted, the Ministry of Public Security (MSP) responded that they were not aware of the situation, most likely the incident was not reported to police.
