WaPo: U.S. Officials Scrambled to Nab Snowden ("Decision to Force a Foreign Leader’s Plane to Land")

[intaglio]

82. The Guardian article

Is known to be wrong because it cites only Morales reasoning, not the aircrew. There was no request to search "for Snowden" there was a request to search as is standard in such cases. The search was a few police walking down the aisle of the aircraft not even checking papers.

The CNN article cites only Bolivian Sources

Never use Wikipedia to support your conspiracy theory

The Global Research article cites an Die Presse article which is based primarily on Bolivian reports.

The Bolivians were the only ones claiming the search was because of Snowden.

1) The aircraft submitted a flight plan. It was approved
2) It took off.
3) Over Austria the pilot noted one of the fuel gauges was malfunctioning
4) The pilot asked for a variation to his flight plan
5) Austria agreed to this variation
6) Italy did not agree
7) France did not agree
8) Spain did not agree
9) All these countries were within their rights to refuse the variation due to prior air traffic constraints.
10) The aircraft was diverted to the Austrian Airport.
11) A request was made for a search - this is normal and consists only of a walk through in case of hijacking/hostage taking.
12) The fuel gauge was repaired and sufficient fuel to allow for a continued flight to the original destination (in Spain) was loaded
13) The aircraft submitted an amended flight plan and was allowed to take off .
14) It landed in Spain and took on sufficient fuel for the transatlantic flight

Note that it prior to the fuel gauge problem there was no problem with the Bolivian plane overflying. The only person claiming it had anything to do with Snowden is Morales.