Your response reminds me of a case where a Russian citizen who operated an online gambling site went on vacation to some Caribbean Island. Except he never made it because the plane he was on made an unscheduled stop in Florida. The FBI also happened to be waiting for the plane to land and he got arrested. Anyone know what I'm talking about? It would've taken place around mid-2000s.
There’s also a Case out there of a birth on a flight between USA and Qatar being granted Canadian citizenship because the flight was over Canadian soil at the time of delivery:
That's it! No wonder I couldn't find it, I had half the details wrong. Online gambling, arrested mid-trip and in 2006. But British not Russian, Texas not Florida and no unscheduled maintenance. Funny how the mind fills in the blanks 15 years after passively reading a news article.
yes, this is one of the reasons i never take flights that transit thru the US. their border situation is atrocious, and the fact that I have to enter their country for a transit is simply kafka-esque. instead of being a civilised country when it comes to transit they’re basically the belarus of north america.
To be honest, any country that wants to arrest you would have no issues with grabbing you from the transit lounge/terminal.
It costs the US airlines and airports a lot of business because US requirements to enter are difficult while other countries just use their brain and help out their airlines by permitting transit-without-entry.
Same with europe if this violates GDPR (likely).
We’d (rightfully or wrongfully) treat a cocaine cartel “shareholder” the same way.