Originally Posted by
BertG
CHARLOTTE -- Two Muslim leaders who were removed from a commercial airliner in Memphis said they were told it was because the pilot refused to fly with them aboard.
Imams Masudur Rahman and Mohamed Azaghloul arrived at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport several hours after they were scheduled to arrive. They were forced off a plane by a pilot on Friday morning.
Both men passed multiple security clearances by TSA and Delta Airlines before boarding. They were even rescreened after they were pulled off the flight. Rahman said they had no problem being screened multiple times.
"It is their job to do it. It is out job to show our stuff. We don't have anything. We are living in America; we want the security of America," said Rahman.
But still the pilot refused to let them board.
"The only reason the pilot has cited was some of the passengers didn't feel comfortable, but when the passengers were asked if they felt uncomfortable, none of them indicated that they were," said the imams' attorney, Mo Idibili.
The imams said despite urging from Delta officials, the pilot didn't budge. They said Delta management apologized profusely and put them on a later flight. The flight the imams were kicked off of was operated by Atlantic Southeast Airlines, which is based in Atlanta. It does business with Delta but is not part of Delta.
Ironically, the two made the trip to Charlotte for a conference of imams, where they would be discussing "Islamophobia," the fear of Islam.
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Contrived by a minority? Or bigotry run wild?
What irony. I was afraid that paranoia would to be awakened in some minds.
Originally Posted by
hansyuwiwb
technically the captain can do whatever he/she wishes to the aircraft without giving any reason. The captain has the power to refuse certain passenger to board, refuse to take off/land, relocate passengers onboard, upgrade/downgrade passengers. Since the pilot flies everyday and those two men can't be the first muslim passengers that pilot had onboard, there must be some reason besides them just being muslim (plus muslim men cannot really be identified by appearance. how did people even know they are muslim?).
This is a common misconception. Pilot is in-charge of safety of the aircraft and the passengers and are given an authority to fulfill that charge. A pilot may not arbitrarily decide to order a passenger off his plane unless presence of the passenger compromises safety.
It's true that pilot is the absolute authority on his plane, but it's subject to laws.
Originally Posted by
JSFox
What is 'way too many'? Can you provide some statistics on this?
One is too many. The number of incidents is far m ore than one.