Tuesday, July 20, 2010

COLTON HARRIS-MOORE Transportation Questions

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The Federal Marshals try to keep their JPATS (a.k.a. Con Air) plans secret, and understandably so. So I don’t know exactly when Colton will be transported from the Federal Detention Center Miami to FDC Seatac. ASAP seems to be the answer, but like the commercial airlines, the Feds don’t like to fly cross country with too many empty seats.


It’s amazing how many different elements can be brought into a story. I received this note from a reader this morning:

“long plane trips can cause DVT [deep vein thrombosis], and it can happen to anyone at any age...recent news reports indicate Colton will be chained to his seat for the entire six-hour flight...this is unhealthy and wrong, it could endanger his health...”

It is accurate that the US Marshals keep their prisoners/passengers locked down in their seats, in handcuffs and leg irons. I haven’t gotten an answer to my query about bathroom or DVT breaks, though it makes sense that they’d have made some allowances for bodily functions on a six-hour flight… Of course if you’re transporting Hannibal Lecter, putting him in a diaper might be the safest way to go. Colton, obviously, is no Lecter, but the Marshals do feel he’s a flight risk.

My mom was a nurse (and in reality, they never STOP being nurses) for way more years than she’d want me to publicize. And as I’ve been traveling the world on hundreds and hundreds of long-haul flights over the past decades, she was after me early on about the dangers of DVT, deep vein thrombosis. As a sidebar health note, here is a link the reader sent about DVT, which we should all be aware of:

Deep Vein Thrombosis

When I get more info about how Colton is to be/was transported, I’ll post.
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4 comments:

  1. Bob, thanks so much for your updates and thoughts about Colton. I appreciate these posts so very much. Thank you for being a reporter/biographer with a compassionate heart. You are definitely the right person to be doing this story.

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  2. Now we are into discussing that Colton should be concerned about DVT??? What about the law enforcement officers who are sworn to sit on either side of him during his transport. Is it because this guy is 19 years old that he is so worried about? He could have killed himself or someone else having stolen 5 airplanes he flew without a pilots license.
    He will be way safer on the plane ride of 6 hours from Miami to Seattle than he was flying in the dark and hard landing planes. I heard he is in Seattle already BTW. So why haven't you updated your audience
    as to his transportation and whereabouts?

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  3. Thanks for your comment, Anonymous.

    You're right, of course, that Colt will be much safer on Con Air than he was flying on his own. But the DVT comment was an interesting subtopic brought up by a reader, and certainly an issue of concern for Sky Marshals and, I assume, for the US Marshals who man Con Air. It was also a way for me to do a post about Colt's transport without simply stating the fact that he'll be put on a flight from Miami to Seattle, like a news report.

    You also allow me to say something that newer readers wouldn't know unless they've read back posts: This is not a breaking news site. In fact there were long periods of time when I hardly posted at all because, as I've explained, when Colton Harris-Moore was on the run, I felt press attention might be adding to the spree and thus adding to the danger to anyone who might get in Colton's way -- or be under a falling plane -- as well as to Colton himself.

    Despite the pace of my work during last week's Bahamas events, I'm not a deadline news reporter and I'm not on the 24-hour news cycle. I'm a feature reporter and a book writer. I will be posting a lot more often now that the danger is over, but I'm not making calls all day just to try to be on top of the exact time he gets transported. I did make calls all day today, but they were to speak to two victims of property crime on Orcas Island, and a long talk with a childhood friend of Colt's.

    I do communicate with members of law enforcement frequently, but so far tonight, none of them have called or emailed about Colt getting back to the west coast. For my purposes, it doesn't matter if Colt gets to Seattle at 5pm or 11pm, today or tomorrow or next week. That doesn't help me understand the story better.

    For anyone who's here just for those kinds of details: I'd suggest also adding a Google Alert for Colton Harris-Moore so you can get breaking news.
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  4. I cannot say it better than Anonymous did (July 20, 2010 5:40 PM). Thank you.
    - Nathalie

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