PhlyingRPh

From this news agency report it appears that in addition to the debacle where two Muslim holy men were removed from a Delta flight on Friday, May 6th, another Muslim holy man appears to have been barred from an American Airlines flight on Saturday, May7th. I can't find any other information on this and frankly, there is not that much information referring to the AA in New York incident in the AFP report to begin with. Only this...

lobo411

The Delta case is a pretty obvious example of racism in action. I hope that ASA does the right thing and terminates the pilot, and I hope that the FAA will do the right thing and terminate his commercial pilot's license. Someone like him shouldn't be in charge of other people's lives.

The AA case is too weak at present. All we know is what his son says--he showed up at the airport and wasn't allowed on a flight. How do we know he didn't show up for check-in at T-10 mins? How do we know he even had a ticket? I was behind some folks who were trying to check their luggage for an international flight once and the agent was having the hardest time--turned out they never bought a ticket!

So wait and see, imo.

EaglesOhThree

or something as obvious as no-fly list trigger.

DillMan

Right. That certainly is likely because he's one of them there muse-lims.

demkr

How about before jumping to conclusions, why don't we wait until we hear a story instead of relying solely on the imam's explanation?

As pax our safety is their #1 priority, and I'm thankful for that-they could have made people uncomfortable on the airplane for all we know or said something suspicious. We don't know exactly what that imams discussion with the TA was, but I think its best to wait for both sides before accusing airlines of racism

vasantn

I agree that we need for more details, but if your position is that it was OK to kick them off if they "could have made other people uncomfortable" or "said something suspicious" then I think you're part of the problem.

And I'm so tired of hearing the "your safety is our #1 priority" mantra.

phlashba

"could have made people uncomfortable on the airplane"
So what?
I don't understand this entire concept.

mvoight

No kidding. Is it ok to kick someone off a flight because some passengers might be a bit racist about flying with an Arab....... or a Black man......??
Yes, the cheese has moved, but the story remains the same.
I agree.. there would be a problem with someone on the No Fly list, but I would like to assume someone wouldn't be denied boarding by AA simply for flying while Muslim..... or because there might be a few words of Arabic, Farsi, Pashtu, etc on their t-shirt.

GUWonder

Were the involved Friday and Saturday flights overbooked? If the mention of the airline not wanting to fly him is accurate, then government blacklisting wouldn't be the issue. However, some airline reps tell blacklisted passengers (whether actually on the lists or mistakenly considered to be on the lists) that it is the airline that does not want to fly them when it is the government that has instructed the airlines that the person is blacklisted.

I prefer it when the plane isn't too full either, as fewer passengers on the plane may mean a more comfortable flight when it results in me having more room and -- hopefully -- more attentive in-flight service too. [sarcasm]This should happen a lot more often, especially to those who are seated in the seats around me but not in my "in" group.[/sarcasm].

mvoight

I gotta agree with your comments on the Delta issue. According to the article, apparently Delta and the pilot seemed to disagree on whether the passenger should fly or not. The right thing to do would be to let the people who didn't want to fly with the Muslims go standby on another flight, maybe that day or the next... or months later... I don't care.. You can't deny someone boarding simply because they look or dress differently. If there is a security concern, than what the hell are we spending all of that money on TSA for? Either they are doing their jobs or not. If a commercial pilot is refusing passgenes because the act, speak, or dress Muslim, that pilot doesn't need a job carrying passengers, unless the KKK is looking for pilots.

Andaz5

I hope there is more to the story but please look at history... a few decades ago it was common practice for an airline to kick a black man off the plane because the flight was oversold and a white passenger wanted his seat. This country has a history of racism and I hope American Airlines rises up and makes better judgment than what happened in Charlotte last Fridays.

They were cleared by TSA to fly and that should be it. I could care less how uncomfortable some racist ignorant passengers felt. To bad the pilot was just as much an idiot.

PhlyingRPh

I think we often overlook the price black passengers have paid (in all travel venues) over the years and I am glad that you have brought this up lest we forget. Frankly, to our detriment I think we have largely forgotten about the prejudice that black passengers have faced, from "freedom papers please", to not being allowed to sit in certain seats, to not being able to travel to certain places because there were no hotels at the destination that would allow a black man to stay there. It was not uncommon for black men traveling on business in the early to middle part of the twentieth century to have to ask the sheriff if they could stay in a jail cell the night.

demkr

I have to disagree with this statement. Have you forgotten Christmas Day 2009? The TSA cleared the crotch bomber to board that NW/DL flight, and the pax stopped him.

That unfortunate mistake happened while other pax were taking off their shoes, putting their laptops in bins by themselves, and surrendering their watter bottles.

The word "racist" is used way too often...Why not hear the other side of the story?

ashill

Regarding the AA passenger, I don't think we know that. All we know is what the passenger's son said, which is that an AA agent told him that the airline didn't want him to fly. If it were a terror watch list or no fly list issue, I doubt the airline would have told him (or been allowed to tell him) the truth anyway.

+1

The pilot had no say in the AA flight.

The fact that the AA incident apparently happened at the ticket counter means it is *possible* that this is a legitimate security concern that came up due to the passenger's background. Again, at this point, we have too little information to make any judgement about the AA incident, IMO. The information we do have does leave an entirely plausible situation in which AA's actions are legitimate: there is some issue which the company and/or a government agency needed more time to do background work on, hence "come back tomorrow". It is also entirely plausible that racism played a minor or significant role; if that's the case, that's obviously a serious problem. But both scenarios are pure speculation at this point.

By the way, welcome to FlyerTalk!

AAerSTL

Doesn't the captain have last word on who can board his/her flight? If the captain and airline personnel felt the safety of the traveling public was at risk than they did the right thing. We need more information before jumping to conclusions but it seems if there was an incident Friday night and the crew still didn't feel comfortable allowing the pax to board.