Summary: A United flight in the queue for takeoff was called back to the gate in order to deplane and question a passenger who was quietly reading a book about WWI-era planes.
The passenger was allowed to re-board the plane and continue without incident ... other than, of course, missing his connection, having to rent a car to continue his journey, and miss half-a-day of work in the process. Plus the accompanying loss of dignity for having been publicly singled out as a possible security threat.
Summary: A United flight in the queue for takeoff was called back to the gate in order to deplane and question a passenger who was quietly reading a book about WWI-era planes.
The passenger was allowed to re-board the plane and continue without incident ... other than, of course, missing his connection, having to rent a car to continue his journey, and miss half-a-day of work in the process. Plus the accompanying loss of dignity for having been publicly singled out as a possible security threat.
The crew asked the guy about what he was reading.
The guy answered.
The plane took off.
The end.
Nonsense and balderdash. Not even close to being a victimless crime here by the United employees. The crew was insanely over-reacting, much like BA did in the Transformer's T-shirt incident.
Law Enforcement was called in to question the guy's reading material, making EVERYBODY on the plane late and causing collateral economic damage.
It's way beyond a 1st amendment issue when flight crew starts getting suspicious about reading material.
United didn't have a monopoly on the planes hijacked on 9/11, but they sure act like it sometimes. Out of an abundance of caution and a shortage of common sense......
Americans used to be proud. Stand up for themselves. Mind their own ....ing business.
Now. OH MY GOD, HE'S READING ABOUT AIRPLANES!!! HE'S A TERRORIST!!! HE'S A TERRORIST!!! HE MUST BE STOPPED!!!
Give me a ....ing break.
When are we going to storm Washington DC and take back our country? When are we lighting the torches, marching with our pitchforks, and saying enough is enough?
This poor man just wanted to fly to his destination. Now, because someone got scared, that ONE PERSON disrupted 80 people's days, over NOTHING. Even that cop was like, paraphrasing, you called me for this?
This is sickening. It is time to retake our country. If not, it surely will be taken from us, comrades.
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I wonder if Mr. Gilbert can take the flight attendants to small claims court for the expenses incurred because of their actions.
What if he had declined to show the cop the book? Under a "Terry stop" detention, if they suspect one of having committed a crime, cops can do a frisk of one's clothing to look for weapons, but cannot pry into the books one is reading at the time. Under what authority would he have been then removed from the aircraft?
Heaven forbid he was reading a book such as the following (which I once did read on a flight) --
Doomed, I am. I have a lot of books about airplanes. Also, an entire bookcase full of physics, chemistry and other such dangerous notions. Sheesh... I have a house full of books!
To top it all off, I am also a singer and a songwriter.
I think I'm gonna buy that book and make sure every TSA clerk sees it as it goes through the checkpoint (I can lay it in my CPAP case, very easily) and see what kind of retaliation I get.
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I think I'm gonna buy that book and make sure every TSA clerk sees it as it goes through the checkpoint (I can lay it in my CPAP case, very easily) and see what kind of retaliation I get.
Be sure to put the book on top of your Arabic flash cards and underneath your scrapbook of photos of [fill in landmark appropriate for city of departure]
Can you imagine being a passenger on that flight and missing a connecting flight because of this nonsense? I would be furious. Why does it matter what he is reading? I could care less if he was reading the manual for the plane we were on. I don't see how he would be a threat. This is just ridiculous.
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Posts: 2,210
Quote:
Originally Posted by mikemey
I think I'm gonna buy that book and make sure every TSA clerk sees it as it goes through the checkpoint (I can lay it in my CPAP case, very easily) and see what kind of retaliation I get.
I had a TSA clerk go mildly apoplectic when seeing my South-Central FAA airport facility directory once (this was back in 2003). He was sure it was a controlled item (whatever they presumed that meant) until I educated him on it's availability to the public for safe air operations...
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