Posted on 11/25/2015 5:10:46 AM PST by HomerBohn
Is the date on the article incorrect? This cannot be current.
AirTran does not exist. It was purchased by Southwest, and ceased to exist in 2014.
I read this years ago
GREAT POST !
Bump for later use
I believe it completely as well.
I had to fly the night of of the Paris attack, and it was a late flight. I was up watching movie on my iPad, but the lights were down, and most people were dozing.
A guy who looked of middle eastern extraction got up, and pulled something from the overhead, faced the front of the plane, and began fiddling with something under his jacket.
With him facing the front, nobody in back of him could see what he was doing, and nobody in front could see unless they turned around.
He was dressed in a suit, and was likely a businessman for all I know, but I can tell you, I kept an eye on him. Yeah. I “profiled”.
“Profiling” is non-PC-Correct for “common sense”.
They did it again?!
It could also have been a power demonstration, to show who was in charge. One of the reasons to stop the process when the camel’s nose is under the edge of the tent is, once camels get inside, they are very arrogant.
This is an old story with much follow-up and “correction”.
Snopes has this to say on it.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/flight297.asp
Read it again.
Yes and November 25, 2016 has not yet come to exist.
Tedd Petruna and AirTran Flight 297 from Atlanta to Houston
A viral message attributed to an AirTran Airways passenger named Tedd Petruna purports to be an eyewitness account of what is described as an Islamic terrorist “dry run” aboard AirTran Flight 297 from Atlanta to Houston on November 17, 2009. The airline says no such incident took place.
Description: Forwarded email / Viral text
Circulating since: Nov. 2009
Status: False (see details below)
Example:
Email text contributed by Tom S., Dec.
1, 2009:
FW: ENOUGH OF THIS ! THE REAL STORY WHY THE FLIGHT WAS CANCELLED ON 11-17, JIHADI DRY RUN ????
Fw: AIRLINE TRAVEL INEPTITUDE, INCOMPETENCE & ARROGANCE
I, Gene Hackemack, received this email from my good friend Tedd Petruna, a diver at the NBL facility [Neutral Buoyancy Lab], at NASA Houston, whom I used to work with. Tedd happened to be on this same Flt. 297, Atlanta to Houston.
In my opinion, the muslims are all getting very brave now, since they have one of their own in the white house...... read Tedd’s story below.
Analysis: The so-called “eyewitness” who wrote this viral email wasn’t even on the plane, according to AirTran officials quoted in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Dec. 5, 2009. Tedd J. Petruna was booked on Flight 297, airline records show, but his connecting flight from Akron arrived too late for him to actually board the Houston-bound plane.
AirTran had previously taken issue with many of the specifics of Petruna’s self-aggrandizing account, which the company describes as “an urban legend.” To be sure, the email contains no shortage of melodrama.
Would a real Muslim terrorist — as opposed to, say, one you might see depicted in a Hollywood action picture, or a comic book — actually yell “Shut up, infidel dog!” at a flight attendant?
More to the point, would they do so during what is supposed to be an undercover “terrorist dry run”?
You be the judge.
Update #1: More eyewitness testimony
Laura Armstrong of the Marietta Daily Journal provided two new pieces of information in her Dec. 6, 2009 column, “The Curious Case of Air Tran Flight 297.”
First, she spoke to Tedd Petruna, who, though he admits “taking artistic license with a couple of points,” claims he was, in fact, on the plane and has a boarding pass to prove it.
Second, Armstrong spoke to another passenger on Flight 297, security expert Brent C. Brown, who backs up some, but not all, of Petruna’s account, including the allegation that the “suspicious men” were belligerent and refused to sit down, creating tension and “chaos” aboard the plane. According to Armstrong, Brown described the passengers who chose to get off the plane when it returned to the gate as “traumatized.” (See video of Brown answering questions about the incident via WSB-TV in Atlanta.)
Brown’s observations conflict with certain aspects of the airline’s version of events, while confirming several of the claims of another (partial) eyewitness, Dr. Keith Robinson, a chaplain from Texas. Robinson wasn’t yet aboard the flight when the fracas occurred, but experienced its aftermath when he boarded after the plane returned to the gate. He noted a considerable degree of agitation and stress among the deboarding crew and passengers, as well as those who stayed on the flight, which he took as an indication that something more serious had happened than the airline admits.
http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/religion/a/flight_297_atlanta_to_houston.htm
Kinda true. Your trusted source was merely forwarding an old email from 2009
http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/flight297.asp
I believe it completely, but I am surprised these guys wore non western clothing.
Right now airlines put PC above risk. This is wrong. We cannot allow bad behavior from just one group. My guess: the guys were flying clean, as it was just a test run, but when they were removed, the authorities were forced to deal with their aggressive lawyer.
Biggest question: WHY DIDNT THE ACTUAL FACTS MAKE THE MEDIA, even simply from the passengers getting together to inform Americans? Surely someone, maybe Hannity, maybe Greta, would have considered this a story?
Here is a hot story dated a year into the future (note the 2016 date), about an airline that ceased to exist a year ago, 2014, and posted in 2015. What’s not to believe?
This incident occurred 17 Nov. 2009, and no records show Petruna was even a passenger on the aircraft.
Several fact-checking sources have refuted Petruna’s account; here’s one:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2009/12/what_really_happened_on_flight
Whoops, I bought it... Oh well, we still need to be vigilant. But the guys wouldn’t wear Arab garb.
According to news reports, this happened on November 17, 2009. Further, that there are other passenger accounts that are at variance with what this guy wrote. Air Tran ceased to exist in December of 2014 having been absorbed by Southwest Airlines.
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