10mmAutoFan

I don't believe that this was a random decision by the flight deck crew. I believe that something specific drew attention to this group of travelers that created a reasonable suspicion by the flight crew that there was a flight safety risk to continue without additional measures.

10mmAutoFan

Again, I will put my faith in the flight deck crew over the TSA and a group of passengers each and every time. I must admit that as a pilot myself, I am biased in that faith. However, if both flight deck crew members were in agreement for the action taken -- it further indicates that something happened involving this specific group of passengers (were they really students? We don't really known from the limited information) that rose to a level of reasonable suspicion (reasonable based upon what would another flight deck crew member do if faced with the same situation) to cause the flight delay and associated financial and scheduling impact to their employer -- as well as the rest of the passengers.

I just don't believe that the flight deck crew would have made such a deicision based solely upon the ethnicity, apparent religious beliefs, or skin color of this group of passengers.

jkhuggins

Of course, we're all speculating here. But we've seen plenty of instances where a passenger, "out of an abundance of caution", reported fellow passengers for "suspicious behavior" that consisted of nothing more than speaking to one another in a non-Midwestern accent. Once that report gets passed on to the flight attendant, and then the pilot, it becomes "safer" to call TSA in to re-screen the victims rather than actually exercise reasonable judgment regarding the validity of the original report --- because calling your own passengers "racists" isn't great PR, either.

So, no, I don't think most flight crews would make such a decision based solely on the appearance of the victims. But I could easily see a flight crew being put into a position of having to choose between re-screening passengers who obviously don't need it and dealing with the original passenger(s) who made an irrational accusation. And neither choice ends well for the flight crew --- though one may end up working better.

N830MH

Wow! I didn't hear it today. What happened? I wasn't concerned those students who is not having any problem at all. They wasn't being in US illegally. He wasn't have any his suspicious behavior.

Please no politics & no religious on this forum. Thank you for cooperation.

rgfloor

So the original crew refused the flight/ran out of hours, the second crew refused to fly, and a third crew took the flight out.

Makes ya wonder what really went on!!

MikeFly

Is there a public source for this information?

I still believe that if those students were really scary either the TSA or US Airways would have come out with more info by now.

CLTmech

If I read the little news blurb correctly from one of the local TV stations; this apparently started with 1 passenger going to the crew with the 'feeling' that these students were seated throughout the plane in such a way that they could easily hijack the plane.

(lets see if I can get the news page to link...)
http://www.wcnc.com/home/Seven-passe...134491958.html

Wally Bird

If this were anyone but US Airways I might tend to agree. But this is far from the first occurrence of (over-)abundance of caution from that particular airline's crews.

From the link aboveSounds not too far-fetched, from someone who was there

9/11 was 10 years ago. It won't happen again.

neuron

Given that US Airways settled with the 6 Imams who were refused flight on US Airways in 2006, and considering that despite the delay, the plane flew out without incident your complete faith seems to be in error. (BTW, I wonder if the passenger who reported the 'risk' decided not to fly -- personally, if I felt there was a danger, I would have got off, but I doubt the chicken little did!)

Your questioning of their student status is another tenuous grasp at reality, considering your first quote said that students draw attention to themselves, but changed it to questioning if they were students when I asked you to provide examples of Spring Break or ROTC marching band students get pulled for security reasons.

The only reason they were even noticed was that they may have been brown-skinned and muslim. Would the TSA and cops pull people off and ask them if they served in the military if it was a passenger of European/American descent?

KissFlyGoodbye

Even though the facts are not really all out, it still is quite surprising someone would go out of their way to single out 3 people and associate them as a group without having any basis or evidence except for where they are seated. Talk about paranoia!

Pesky Monkey

This is one of a hundred reasons not to fly USAir.

InkUnderNails

I have been following this thread and we still know no more than the following:

1. They were from the U.A.E..
   
2. They were fairly young and described as students.
   
3. They were pulled from the aircraft and rescreened or interrogated.
   
4. They were allowed to continue their trip.
   
5. A plane load of people were delayed 4 hours due to one or more people becoming concerned for some reason still unknown and starting the process that led to #3 and #4 above.
   
6. It may have involved multiple flight crews.

Other than that, we still have only speculation. We may never know more.

bluenotesro

I'm surprised some of the pax didn't wet their pants upon seeing some 'brown-skinned' folks who talk with a 'funny accent.'

I'm embarrased to be called an American.

I wonder how all the locals feel when this pasty white boy gets on a flight in Dubai or Doha? From my experience, it's hardly a glance and more often than not, I end up engaged in some friendly conversation.

Try that on a domestic US flight. If I engaged in conversation with a 'Middle Eastern' looking pax, would I be suspected of something nefarious???? Would I be jerked off the plane and interrogated?

Probably.

magic111

It was necessary to delete multiple posts from this Checkpoints and Borders Policvy Debate thread that were destined for the OMNI/PR Forum.

If the initiator for the off topic discussion had OMNI/PR priviledges (post count and tenure -- see TalkBoard discussion here) they would have been separated and sent to OMNI/PR as a distinct thread. As the intiator did not have those priviledges their post has been deleted along with all responses.

For those who have OMNI/PR priviledges feel free to either begin a thread in that forum for further discussion or join in one of the discussions that are already happening.

Please feel free to continue the topic from the OP.

thank you for you contributions
~magic111

InkUnderNails

I always strike up a short conversation with whomever sits next to me. If that gets me kicked off the plane, I will have to handle that situation when it comes.

When it is someone of certain "suspicious looking ethnicity," they usually seemed relieved that I will even talk to them. I suspect, but I do not know, that many of them travel with the thought in the back of their mind that at any time a passenger may initiate an incident like that described in the OP.