Arabic messages written on underside of planes... just vandalism or a legitimate threat?

Long time lurker & replier in the earthquake & volcano discussion topics but my first original post on ATS. Please be gentle if I did the link wrong or posted in the wrong topic... :-)

A freind who lives in Las Vegas just posted about this on his page & he seemed really worked up about it. I am parphrasing his post...
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My friend's mother just told him about Southwest planes that came into McCarran Int'l Airport in Las Vegas that had Arabic messages written underneath the planes. The message is written with chemicals which only reveal the message when the plane is hot. They contacted the FAA and the FBI and they're not concerned. They claim it's vandalism and not to worry. How does someone get on airport property without being noticed? They have cameras for this purpose and they won't tell people what the message means...

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I wanted to verify the information with a "verifiable" source (as much as the lame street media can be!) so I started searching & did find 1 new article already.

Suspicious markings found on Southwest planes
www.fox5vegas.com...

Maybe it is vandalism, maybe not. I do think it is worth watching... Your thoughts?

Quiet Right

reply to post by quietright


Old news here. But I 've never heard of what the translations were?

Does anybody know?

Other than the Arabic version of "Killroy was here."

Any pictures of those markings? Any one know what they mean or say? It may be some new way to send coded messages to sleeper cells or something. It could be nothing or somehing really big. Now as to the cost and risk of doing this sounds a little odd. The chemicals used to do this I bet are not cheap. And to be able to get that close to a plane for that long is not a good thing.

The writing probably says "We love America" or "Sharia law exploits women". I'm sure it's nothing bad. Arabic is mostly spoken by Muslims. Islam is the "Religion of Peace" after all.

Or it might just be random scribble.

It's not like Arabic is some rare, incomprehensible language. You're in an airport. Ask a dude.

reply to post by quietright


I didn't even catch that the date was from several weeks ago... my bad!

I am usually very good about checking date stamps & since this was the only news article I saw I assumed (I know, I know) it was fresh.

Still, I suspect something new might have happened this weekend as my friend was REALLY worked up over it like it was just breaking news. Either that or his mom just now heard about it this weekend, I'm not sure. The closest I come to knowing anyone Arabic speaking is the family down the road which I don't even know personally. Since we are all 1,000+ miles away from Vegas that doesn't help anyway...

think it was part of the manufacturing process.

Not to bust your chops or anything, but I did find thread here discussing this.
ATS Thread Link

The only images that I've managed to find are Here

Now, I'm not saying that I agree with what that site is on about... that those pictures are scimitars (swords) but it does look like it that to me. I haven't found any other images of "script" or "writing" on these southwest airlines. What that means is up to interpretation, since there is very very little public info regarding this.
(which I believe is for a reason)

I did run across a couple very interesting posts on an aviation forum, from someone that probably works for SWA. Pretty much said that he/she has seen them, and won't comment. Not sure if it's appropriate to link,
to another board...


Couple of questions I have about this....
In the pictures (linked article) I've read that - these markings are on, or near the engine exhaust.
Is that what we are looking at here?

First: Why put it there? That seems like a pretty bizarre place for random graffiti if you ask me.

Second: Who would have access to that, regular ground crew? Mechanics? Let's just say... if someone with nefarious ideas can get that close to do that, what other components could be compromised?
Something stinks there.

I dunno, but if your friend (or whomever mentioned it) was shook up about it... probability tells me that they had seen something that was not quite right, aside from "graffiti" on an engine. So yeah, it is something to keep an eye on.

Edit to add: Does your friend, or the other person (source) know anyone that works in an airport?

Regards, and welcome to the board!

And no video of the "scribbles".... No offence to the OP, but there is nothing to objectively review... just words from admitedly biased sources.


I would need some real pictures/video of this writing to even believe this is real.

reply to post by telemetry


As I understand it his mom either works at the airport or has connections to the airport, don't know in what capacity. He can be a bit excentric at times but is not a drama king & has never engaged in political or other discussions along these lines since I've known him (about a year & a half) so this is completely out of left field. He even threw a #prepareforwar hash tag on which again is totally out of character for him...

I wish I had pictures. I am also a skeptic & want hard proof too. If he passes anything along I will be sure to send it on.