vasantn

Gotta love the comments. God forbid they represent a cross-section of America. That would mean 80% of Americans are Tea Partiers.

GUWonder

Indeed -- either for offloading the passengers subjected to bigotry; or for failing to offload bigoted passengers whose ignorance and/or paranoia made a stink for no good reason.

Buccaneeratheart

Thanks for clarifying. That makes 100% sense.

1 person, 1 building in OKC. 1 person, 1 event in ATL. 19 people, 4 planes, 3 buildings, another unknown building, and 3,1000 lives on 9/11. That all smells like the stale retort about the Christian Crusades justifying 9/11. Those unfortunate excuse mongers always forget that the Crusades actually ended 751 years ago.

As far as I am concerned, the pilot is empowered to make any decision he/she wishes...except crashing the a/c...without question or allegation.

GUWonder

Then the pilot should have chosen a different career path. Flying for a common carrier regulated duly by the US Federal Government -- as a result of the interstate commerce clause of the US Constitution (a respectable piece of work if there ever was one) -- means the pilot of such an airline is not "empowered to make any decision he/she wishes...except crashing the a/c...without question or allegation".

upnorth

I think it is violation of these travelers civil rights. The pilot should be fired. Delta should seriously consider continuing their contract with Atlantic Southeast Airlines. Delta should have stood down the pilot and called in a replacement rather than delaying the flight for all passengers in order to off-load these two passengers. I witnessed a similar incident 15 years back. I noticed an aboriginal man sitting next to a young blond lady on a Qantas flight. The air hostess came up to the lady and told her if she was "uncomfortable" she would be happy to move her to a different seat. I was shocked and so was the lady who said she was fine. Many times, it is the crew who think the passengers are "uncomfortable" sitting next to people of other race or religion.

PhlyingRPh

Fellow FTers... please take this in the context of the subject at hand and in reference to the post to which it is referring. I should not have to post such a request to apparently cogent individuals who frequent a message board where multiple opinions are considered multiple times a minute, but given the subject matter at hand, I find it necessary to do so.

If we are going to play around with numbers, I'll point out that 9/11 was only one event too, and frankly 3,100 hundred lives is nothing compared to the number of people members of the american military have murdered, raped, tortured and otherwise terrorized over the years that resulted in 9/11 and since. Perhaps you could include this group of people in your stereotyping of groups that pilots should consider removing from aircraft @:-) After all, they are trained terrorists, some have murdered innocents in other countries. In comparison, the stereotyped Muslims on planes in the US are likely to be better educated, better off, more law abiding and much less likely to steal, get drunk, shoot at, stab or rape someone than say, the average passenger on an aircraft.

Indeed, stereotyping groups can be such fun, can it not?

Edited to add: Again, you are requested to focus on the ethereal message of this post.

A4K

[QUOTE=PhlyingRPh;16342391]If we are going to play around with numbers, I'll point out that 9/11 (yawn) was only one event too, and frankly 3,100 hundred lives is nothing compared to the number of people members of the american military have murdered, raped, tortured and otherwise terrorized over the years that resulted in 9/11 and since. QUOTE]

Excuse me. But, did you just YAWN an the 9/11 attacks? Honestly not sure where you are from nor do I care, but pretty much every American, from every political party, and from all points of view will find that insulting and you should be ashamed of yourself for saying that.

I was reading this post saying to myself I was not going to comment because the conversations has completely turned away from air travel, but this irked me big time

vasantn

Also keep in mind that this is an international forum and not just a forum for Americans.

PhlyingRPh

Indeed. I am equally revolted by comments by people using 9/11 to justify the treatment of Muslim travelers as second class citizens. Based on that, yes, I did yawn, and I'll yawn again, the same way most yawn at the murder of HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of people in other countries by americans.

GUWonder

Doesn't the invocation of 9/11 to try to justify who knows what ever get old? If anyone thinks these offloaded passengers had any unlawful connection to 9/11 atrocities, they really should seek help with the ignorance and/or paranoia that is guiding them to stand by questionable approaches to who knows what.

PhlyingRPh

My mileage varies

runninaway

Well, it wasn't one person in OKC, but lets not quibble there, I concede your point. The number of 911 terrorists is greater than the number of OKC terrorists and 168 deaths (OKC) is less than 3100. What number, pray tell, is the magic tipping point? If Timothy McVeigh had another dozen conspiritors and taken out 5 fold the number would that be enough to justify a sweeping condemnation of Christians? Tenfold? Just how many must one slaughter to justify bigotry?

readywhenyouare

I completely agree with that sentiment. A complete lack of respect for the victims and families of the Semptember 11th attacks. Some people just lack any sort of decency.

A4K

I don't disagree with you RPh, but please, I am sure many of FTers like myself knew families, or had loved ones that were impacted by the attacks, so please don't try to down play the events. And I do apologize for the personal attack it just hits home a bit.

PTravel

According to the story, there were no bigoted passengers. Just an incredibly bigoted pilot who, I hope, will be fired (though not before his name is made public so he can be pilloried for the ignorant jerk that he is).

That pilot (and his idiot supporters who left the comments in the story) should be ashamed to call themselves Americans. Then again, it is North Carolina. I still have vivid memories from when I lived there in the 70s of being asked, several times, "Say, you're one of those Jews, aren't you!"