They obviously said something that was alarming not only to passengers in ear shot but to the Air Marshalls as well.
I'm pretty sure from the accounts I read that your assumption about the Air Marshalls is not correct.
Once a passenger (not passengers by the way) overreacted to a remark he/she heard, I think AirTran's captain did the correct thing in asking the Muslim passengers to be escorted off. There was no way he was in a position to sort it all out onboard. I just wish that he would have asked the objecting passenger who started the whole thing to be escorted off as well. That way, the captain would not have put the airline in the position of taking sides onboard as to who said what.
AirTran, being an airline, of course fumbled the ball on how they handled it afterward.
I'm pretty sure from the accounts I read that your assumption about the Air Marshalls is not correct.
Once a passenger (not passengers by the way) overreacted to a remark he/she heard, I think AirTran's captain did the correct thing in asking the Muslim passengers to be escorted off.
It was actually two female teen-age passengers according to what I've read. This was from the CNN article linked earlier.
Quote:
"When we were talking, when we turned around, I noticed a couple of girls kind of snapped their heads," said Sobia Ijaz, Atif Irfan's wife. "I kind of thought to myself, 'Oh, you know, maybe they're going to say something.' It didn't occur to me that they were going to make it such a big issue."
Officials said two teenage girls sitting nearby became alarmed when they heard Sahin remark that sitting near the engines would not be safe in the event of an accident or an explosion. The girls told their parents, who told a flight attendant, AirTran officials said.
Sounds like the FAM's didn't hear the remarks themselves. Girls told parents. Parents told FA. FA told FAM's.
And the two teenage girls sound like a couple of drama queens wanting to be able to have an exciting story they could breathlessly tell all their friends about.
If that second report is correct then the two teenage girls and their parents should have been removed as well.
And the two teenage girls sound like a couple of drama queens wanting to be able to have an exciting story they could breathlessly tell all their friends about.
AirTran said they made "comments they shouldn't have made."
What WERE they?
Such an unequivocal statement creates legal issues for FL.
Even worse legally speaking for Airtran - they were apparently flat out lying about why they didn't rebook the family, saying they had received no information that the family had been cleared. "An FBI spokesman confirmed Friday that agents intervened on behalf of the family with AirTran. When AirTran declined to book the family, agents helped them get tickets with US Airways, FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said." I hope a lawsuit does come out of this so at the very least those teenage girls get to learn how to deal with a subpoena.
.Officials said two teenage girls sitting nearby became alarmed when they heard Sahin remark that sitting near the engines would not be safe in the event of an accident or an explosion.
well on a positive note you would be deaf from the engines and would never hear the explosion
And I suppose if you are flying on Valujet...I mean *cough...cough* AirTran Airways I suppose discussing the safest place to be in a crash isnt such a bad idea
Officials said two teenage girls sitting nearby became alarmed when they heard Sahin remark that sitting near the engines would not be safe in the event of an accident or an explosion. The girls told their parents, who told a flight attendant, AirTran officials said.
It would be interesting to poll the other passengers on that flight to see who they were most annoyed with in this case.
- Officials
- The girls
- Parents of the girls
- The Muslim passengers who made the remark
- AirTran staff
- AirTran pilot
- No one
For me, I'd be most annoyed with the parents of the girls. Conversations about safety on airplanes happen all the time without incident. We don't have the full transcript of what was said, but based on what was reported, that in isolation is hardly suspicious. If that indeed is all that was said, I'd be irritated that the parents didn't exercise more discretion.
I just have a visual of these two idiot girls traveling with their pillows and Bunny slippers wearing Juicy Couture sweatpants. We all have seen them. I can't stand them.
Last edited by asnovici; Jan 5, 09 at 2:24 pm.
Reason: Realized that its Juicy Couture, not Juice Couture, I need to get with the program!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BeantownDisneyFan
I think Air Tran reacted appropriately by removing these people from their aircraft.
Is the threat level of our Nation not orange?
I'm hoping that Air Tran is taking seriously the need to weed out those who are a threat to the traveling public.
You're joking, right?
Whenever I hear that statement I always get this image of what would happen if the threat level ever turned yellow—the decreased vigilance would turn my stomach!!!
Seriously, if this wasn't a joke, please, please, please read 1984.
Even worse legally speaking for Airtran - they were apparently flat out lying about why they didn't rebook the family, saying they had received no information that the family had been cleared. "An FBI spokesman confirmed Friday that agents intervened on behalf of the family with AirTran. When AirTran declined to book the family, agents helped them get tickets with US Airways, FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said." I hope a lawsuit does come out of this so at the very least those teenage girls get to learn how to deal with a subpoena.
Boy, I wonder how much Airtran is going to have to write a check for.
I just have a visual of these two idiot girls traveling with their pillows and Bunny slippers wearing Juice Couture sweatpants. We all have seen them. I can't stand them.
I just watched the CNN interview recording of the 2 brothers who were removed from the AirTran flight. The reference by one of the brothers to his seven year old son brought tears to my eyes. I'm an Indian-American and have a seven year old, I certainly hope in future when I travel I won't have to explain to my son why we are being taken off the airplane and are surrounded by police officers for no obvious reason. Shame on whoever escalated this and let it swirl out of control.
The word "explosion" is not a good word to use on an airplane, especially in relation to the airplane itself. Saying (airplane component) and "explosion" in the same sentence is behavior that risks getting you unwanted attention, regardless of your skin color. Even if what you're actually saying is completely innocuous, you have no idea what someone in the row behind you on a noisy airplane is going to think you said. So I'm not in any way objecting to a party having such a conversation being deplaned for some investigation.
But, once they figured out it was just a bad choice of words, it's inexcusable that the travelers could not be reaccomodated on a later flight.
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