Posted on 01/03/2011 8:52:29 PM PST by nickcarraway
Passengers claimed man had suspicious package in the overhead compartment
A Florida professor was arrested and removed from a plane Monday after his fellow passengers alerted crew members they thought he had a suspicious package in the overhead compartment.
That "suspicious package" turned out to be keys, a bagel with cream cheese and a hat.
Ognjen Milatovic, 35, was flying from Boston to Washington D.C. on US Airways when he was escorted off the plane for disorderly conduct following the incident. Monday's incident is another example of other passengers essentially becoming the authority on terrorist activity on planes.
Recently, passenger complaints have resulted authorities taking action against innocent passengers who went to the bathroom too often on a flight and who were just being annoying. In the hyper-sensitive world of flying, sneezing too often could get you kicked off a flight and questioned by the FBI. Milatovic, who is a mathematics and statistics professor at the University of North Florida, was minding his business when other passengers turned into super sleuths. Passengers reported hearing strange noises coming from a plastic bag. State police said later that the bag contained a set of keys,
a bagel with cream cheese, some other small food items, a hat and a wallet.
When confronted by the US Airways crew about his "suspicious package," Milatovic got on his cell phone. The crew asked him to hang it up and sit down. When he refused, he was cuffed.
Milatovic was also charged with interfering with the operation of an aircraft.
I agree, but the one thing missing is why the passenger thought he needed to make a phone call. For all we know, he was trying to call his lawyer for advice.
I don't think that excuses him, but it was a strange reaction. I suspect that there was plenty of @sshattery going on from all three sides: the passenger, the flight crew, and all the other passengers.
Yes, that’s exactly the thing. Of all the possible annoyances with flying... none are so great as what those other @hole passengers do. I’ve never found flight attendants, or ticket agents, or anybody else associated with the airline to be anything other than polite and helpful. But it’s the other passengers I wish I could flush out an open door from time to time...
This is the obvious reason they call it a Luggage Rack rather than a Bagel Rack.
A phonecall??? Sorry... he needed to get his sorry @ss off the plane and leave the rest of the passengers alone to go on about their way.
A phonecall is not a right. Hell, it only became ~possible~ a few years ago. That doesn’t make it more important than the rest of the flight.
God forbid he call an attorney while being thrown off a plane for having a bagel in a bag.My grandmother must be a threat with her tuna sandwiches because she would smack the crap out of you if you touched her food and tell you to GET LOST!
It seems the silly people on the rest of the fight were the REAL problem.
Just his reaction proves he was up to no good. He could have been calling a bomb detonator for all they knew.
According to the article, it wasn’t so much about the bagle but more about the behavior.
WTF ? ? ?
That professor doesn’t look Moslim, and most Moslims are NOT known for a propensity for bagels.
This case is proof positive that TSAPersons really are fast food industry rejects, with police powers. Oleg Volk has ‘em pegged.
Hmmmm, you say there is much missing, then you proceed to fill in the blanks. How do you know he was the one who was belligerent? How do you he was being belligerent, and not the state police. How would you like it if some jackbooted thug said you were a member of Al Qaeda, because you had a bag with keys and a bagel were in it?
Perhaps he was up to no good, or perhaps he was simply an asshole.
What do the state police have to do with it? Airports aren’t usually in the jurisdiction of the state police, and I haven’t seen anything in the story to suggest that the state police were involved in any way.
So what?
I was kind of sympathetic to you before, but not after this comment. The other passengers saw a bag with a bagel in it, so he has no right to be on the plane. I can't believe how many "Citizens are the property of the government" types there are on FR.
Next time you are on a plane, imagine if police come up to you and treat you like bin Laden. I'm sure you would love it.
Shouldn’t have used the phone. If being on a plane full of people, unarmed, with no other means of vetting your other passengers doesn’t qualify as ‘exigent’, I don’t know what does.
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