Don't read books about airplanes while on an airplane.
 

http://vancegilbert.com/index.php?pa...g&display=2245

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.

All I can say is, "This makes me sooooo .... :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad: !"

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......

Once again; the terrorists have won.

I'm reading this and I'm shaking with fury.

This is what we've become.

Scared ....ing *******.

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.

Disgusting.

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) --

http://www.amazon.com/Overblown-Poli.../dp/1416541713

yikes!
 

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 feel so... dangerous!

:rolleyes:

And this is permissible under which law (USC) or regulation (CFR, FAR) ?

You're really perfectly OK with this ? Boggle.

(apologists preemption: "It didn't happen like that")

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.

United has a history of such actions. I only hope it disappears with the CO merger...

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.

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...

Are you insane? This is intolerable. It's the work of paranoid, half-bright, abusive, sociopathic flight attendants.

The crossword I was doing on a plane the other day contained the answer: World Trade Center. Arrest me.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/U...000Z/KBOS/KIAD

The flight arrived nearly an hour late because of this nonsense.

This is a falsehood per the info available.
-The crew never asked the man what he was reading.
--The crew called LEOs, deplaned him, and had LEOs ask
- Gentleman in question answered at once, calmly, and with no malice.
- After being cleared from crew's overeaction, the plane took off over an hour late.
-Many people were Inconvenienced

The end

So if the cops then demanded that his checked and carry-on bags be taken off and searched to see what other reading material the passenger had, and the flight ended up taking off three hours late, you'd be okay, because after all, the plane took off?

I would be furious as well--not at Mr. Gilbert--but at the airline/crew. Had I been there, I certainly would have been taking notes and surreptitiously taking photos of the flight attendants to catalog the possible culprit(s), and registered my own complaints with the airline and publicly, far and wide.

It is absolute nonsense. UA needs to do some crew disciplining and possibly some firings.

This whole article has prompted me to think about having some fun today. Perhaps tonight I'll drive down to IAD, park, go in, and start taking pictures of the UA ticketing area just to see their reactions (and as a form of protest).

It should be fun.

UA flight attendants are bunch of paranoid nutbags - my hope from the merger is new management will jettison most of them in favor of the CO staff and CO new hires.

That being said, I was aware of their paranoia and a couple months back I specifically took a complimentary copy of Flying magazine from the AC MLL at YYZ to read on my UA flight - making sure the cover and lots of pictures were visible to the FAs and flight deck crew as I read the magazine before departure.

I'm a pilot and read that magazine frequently, but I would have dared them to say something, as the Peel Police who work at YYZ would have likely arrested the crew for creating a disturbance had they called the police on me for my choice of reading material.

I will continue to drag around my copy of Flying on various UA flights in attempt to bait these loonies into saying something so I can humiliate them.

Interesting -- I looked on the UA website and on the Dulles airport flight info websites and couldn't find his flight number. I suppose they could have changed the schedule between August 11 & now. I did find UA 3429. Given the four-digit number, I suspected it was a cropduster and, likely, a commuter airline. I was right, if this other flight # is correct. The flight was actually Trans States Airlines. That doesn't relieve UA of any responsibility and future liability, but, it does perhaps explain why the crew was so weird about this. Not being UA, they can't really claim 9/11 paranoia as a reason.

What did they think was going on? That he was boning up on Terrorism 101 with "Blowing up Planes for Dummies?" I can't imagine the conversation that the crew would have had to have with one in other to arrive at the conclusion that they needed to get the LEOs involved.

Hey everyone next time you see Janet Napolitano give her a big ol "Thanks!".

This is what happens when you have a "see something, say something" campaign of paranoid Americans spying on each other.

What a great place our nation has become. Land of the free and home of the brave. Sure.

I once noticed a FA and a seatmate looking at me strangely because I was reading "The God Delusion". Luckily it did not warrant questioning, but maybe we do have to watch what we read, or maybe just switch to e-readers so no one else knows...

Query whether the TSA will start reviewing the crossword puzzles found in the complimentary in-flight magazines for hidden and cryptic messages.

Of course, they'll need to hire someone who can actually complete a crossword puzzle, but....

No. We do not have to watch what we read. And I will not.

The crew over-reacted to a harmless book.
The guy humored the idiots
The plane took off late

everyone was needlessly hassled for no valid reason.

The terrorist score another victory.
Not the end

Your summary is woefully inaccurate. The crew did not ask him what he was reading. The police did. After the plane was returned to the gate. Big difference. And this distinction was clear in the victim's blog.

Perhaps if the flight crew was so worried, they could have asked him what he was reading and then the guy could have answered and the plane took off. On time. With no inconvenience to anyone!

I hope that is not the end. It was ridiculous and the flight crew and/or the person who decided he needed to be questioned by the police needs to be held accountable for their actions. Out of an abundance of caution, my arse!

Not an option during takeoff and landing, when all electronic devices must be turned off and stowed ... which is, of course, exactly when this incident occurred ...

I shudder to think what would have happened had the flight attendant not seen the guy reading the books till mid-flight, especially with the plane headed toward DC.

Note to self: Avoid UA.

I am currently researching arc flash for a research paper. I have printed out a bunch of articles and stapled them together for reference and I carry them with me. The top one is here.



I may be in trouble.

We're all in trouble.

Mr. Gilbert mentions flying on a E170 which means his flight was probably operated by Shuttle America. While this does not mean United can wash their hands of the incident, I find the cabin crew of many feeder airlines to be much less experienced and overreact to seemingly minor issues. Guess this poor pax became yet more collateral damage for the Big Brother-ish "see something, say something."

More "There's a terrorist under my bed!!" from, guess who, UA FAs.

Big surprise. :rolleyes:

UA3483 BOS-IAD 0600-0731 is only scheduled on Sundays. (This matches the traveler's account that he was flying on Aug. 14, a Sunday.)

It's a United Express flight; the operating carrier is Shuttle America.

To be clear, the flight crew in question worked for Shuttle America, an airline which runs flights for United and for Delta.

They do not also operate flights for CO.

Maybe as CO continues the merger, they will abandon 70-passenger regional jets on the BOS-IAD shuttle flights and bring full mainline jet service to the route? That would be nice.

Or would you prefer that CO ditch Shuttle America and bring in Colgan on this route?

See if you can find a copy of EAA Warbirds in an FBO pilots lounge somewhere. Civilians flying privately owned military aircraft? Horrors! :eek::D

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...TY1Mi5qcGc.jpg

Agreed. There is that UA purser relatively famous on FT who got very upset and called the rear FA on his phone to report 'she's LOOKING at me!' :eek:

I was sitting diagonally across from him; he was sitting in the jumpseat facing the cabin. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

One of my all time favourite books is Nevil Shute's No Highway. It may be time for a re-read.

Shameless crew apologist reads thread title.
Ignores link to post.
Writes silly, not-remotely-accurate summary.
Makes negative impression on the rest of FT.

The end.