Ha Ha!
Cheers!
Posted on 08/19/2006 4:54:48 PM PDT by West Coast Conservative
British holidaymakers staged an unprecedented mutiny - refusing to allow their flight to take off until two men they feared were terrorists were forcibly removed.
The extraordinary scenes happened after some of the 150 passengers on a Malaga-Manchester flight overheard two men of Asian appearance apparently talking Arabic.
Passengers told cabin crew they feared for their safety and demanded police action. Some stormed off the Monarch Airlines Airbus A320 minutes before it was due to leave the Costa del Sol at 3am. Others waiting for Flight ZB 613 in the departure lounge refused to board it.
The incident fuels the row over airport security following the arrest of more than 20 people allegedly planning the suicide-bombing of transatlantic jets from the UK to America. It comes amid growing demands for passenger-profiling and selective security checks.
It also raised fears that more travellers will take the law into their own hands - effectively conducting their own 'passenger profiles'.
The passenger revolt came as Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary was accused of using the terror crisis to make money. Government sources say he boasted to an official at the Transport Department: "Every time I appear on TV, I get a spike in sales."
The Tories said the Government's failure to reassure travellers had led the Malaga passengers to 'behave irrationally' and 'hand a victory to terrorists'.
Websites used by pilots and cabin crew were yesterday reporting further incidents. In one, two British women with young children on another flight from Spain complained about flying with a bearded Muslim even though he had been security-checked twice before boarding.
The trouble in Malaga flared last Wednesday as two British citizens in their 20s waited in the departure lounge to board the pre-dawn flight and were heard talking what passengers took to be Arabic. Worries spread after a female passenger said she had heard something that alarmed her.
Passengers noticed that, despite the heat, the pair were wearing leather jackets and thick jumpers and were regularly checking their watches.
Initially, six passengers refused to board the flight. On board the aircraft, word reached one family. To the astonishment of cabin crew, they stood up and walked off, followed quickly by others.
The Monarch pilot - a highly experienced captain - accompanied by armed Civil Guard police and airport security staff, approached the two men and took their passports.
Half an hour later, police returned and escorted the two Asian passengers off the jet.
'There was no fuss or panic'
Soon afterwards, the aircraft was cleared while police did a thorough security sweep. Nothing was found and the plane took off - three hours late and without the two men on board.
Monarch arranged for them to spend the rest of the night in an airport hotel and flew them back to Manchester later on Wednesday.
College lecturer Jo Schofield, her husband Heath and daughters Emily, 15, and Isabel, 12, were caught up in the passenger mutiny.
Mrs Schofield, 38, said: "The plane was not yet full and it became apparent that people were refusing to board. In the gate waiting area, people had been talking about these two, who looked really suspicious with their heavy clothing, scruffy, rough, appearance and long hair.
"Some of the older children, who had seen the terror alert on television, were starting to mutter things like, 'Those two look like they're bombers.'
"Then a family stood up and walked off the aircraft. They were joined by others, about eight in all. We learned later that six or seven people had refused to get on the plane.
"There was no fuss or panic. People just calmly and quietly got off the plane. There were no racist taunts or any remarks directed at the men.
"It was an eerie scene, very quiet. The children were starting to ask what was going on. We tried to play it down."
Mr Schofield, 40, an area sales manager, said: "When the men were taken off they didn't argue or say a word. They just picked up their coats and obeyed the police. They seemed resigned to the fact they were under suspicion.
"The captain and crew were very apologetic when we were asked to evacuate the plane for the security search. But there was no dissent.
"While we were waiting, everyone agreed the men looked dodgy. Some passengers were very panicky and in tears. There was a lot of talking about terrorists."
Patrick Mercer, the Tory Homeland Security spokesman, said last night: "This is a victory for terrorists. These people on the flight have been terrorised into behaving irrationally.
"For those unfortunate two men to be victimised because of the colour of their skin is just nonsense."
Monarch said last night: "The captain was concerned about the security surrounding the two gentlemen on the aircraft and the decision was taken to remove them from the flight for further security checks.
"The two passengers offloaded from the flight were later cleared by airport security and rebooked to travel back to Manchester on a later flight."
A spokesman for the Civil Guard in Malaga said: "These men had aroused suspicion because of their appearance and the fact that they were speaking in a foreign language thought to be an Arabic language, and the pilot was refusing to take off until they were escorted off the plane."
The British have always been pretty good about security.
I was on a flight from Birmingham, England to Ohio in 1999.
I had checked my luggage and had no carry on bags. I walked down to the gate just to see where it was, and then turned around and went back up the concourse to have a beer since I had some time to kill.
When I returned to the gate, they had my bags off the plane, and called me by name to come over while they searched them.
I still don't know how they knew who I was, or that I had left the gate, or which bags to get off the plane! I hadn't even checked in at the gate yet.
I noticed the two mideastern guys in line with me....one dressed casually, the other in a sportscoat...
..when I finally boarded the plane, wouldn't you know it....one of them was sitting in front of me, and the other had the seat next to me!!
Actually, he argued that my seat....the aisle seat...was his.
I'm usually mild mannered, but I argued back and pointed out specifically that it was mine.
..I did not like him immediately.
I was so freaked out & nervous, I just sat there and cried, thinking I would have to spend the next few hours right next to him......he was just weird.
I prayed....I really prayed, cause my imagination was running wild, and I remembered what they did to those stewardesses on 9/11.....(and this guy sure wanted my aisle seat)...
...eventually, I calmed & read my book...
..and the guy (who didn't have a carry on...all he had was a plastic bag with items he kept pulling out)...
..put on a sleepmask **of all things** and went or pretended to go...to sleep.
I don't ever want to experience that again....it's too nerve racking.
Israelis have a lot more up-close-and-personal experience with Muslims than other Western countries do, and every last one of the screeners is likely to have served in the IDF. Not having those advantages, I don't think mere behavioral profiling would work here, although I would agree that a security officer should be able to prevent any passenger he feels may be a threat to the aircraft from boarding.
I agree.
The good folks in the article didn't profile based on "Middle-Eastern appearance" alone.
Also added were:
1) speaking in Arabic
2) always checking their watches
3) being bundled up in leather despite the heat
And don't try that BS about "it's hotter in the Middle East, they bundle up more in what others would call warm weather".
I live in Phoenix and I still wear shorts when it's in the 60's.
If people started doing this more often, the Islamikazes would have to call off the airplane bombings due to...no targets.
Full Disclosure: I call dibs on this one:
What if they held a Jihad and nobody came?TM
Cheers!
My approach would be to announce that the "suspects" had been thoroughly searched, and were "clean." Maybe search them again, and announce that. Then state that anyone can get off the plane, but their tickets are non refundable. Then take off, with if need be just the two "suspects" on board. Stand firm; do what is right. The incident was mishandled it appears, and mob fear was allowed to run rampant, and then catered to. It is pathetic really.
I bet if it was to happen here in the US the only person getting arrested will be the ones making the complaints.
Awesome for those tourists to stand up and make notice their observations, the airlines are too cash starved to give a hoot who buys the ticket, I'm also hoping the next airline advertising slogan will say, "Muslim Free". And I'm hoping for more ant-muslim cartoons!
"...they were speaking in a foreign language thought to be an Arabic language, and the pilot was refusing to take off until they were escorted off the plane."
Notice, it never says what language they were actually speaking. Must have been arabic.
YEs, the story is RIDDLED with PC Crap!
I hope we see more incidents like this.
The fact remains that McVeigh was seen with a Middle Eastern male (John Doe #2) by many witnesses. Remember the sketches?
And until they lift a finger, I consider them ALL to be BAD APPLES.
Your last comment would make a GREAT T-shirt!
Ha Ha!
Cheers!
" If Allah wanted his people to fly -- he would have given then wings."
Or Magic Carpets....
I did that too, then I stopped flying cause the BS at the airports just ain't woth it anymore. I drive everywhere I go now.
No, I agree. But the idea that excluding all East Asian or Middle Easterner appearing people from flights is going to provide safety is not very accurate. Pakistanis and Indians look a lot alike, but one group is mostly Muslim and out to get us, and the other is not. Furthermore, there are a lot of converts - three of the British plotters were non-Middle Easterners. Two were white Britons and one was a black Jamaican.
My point is that the problem is Islam, and I think it's going to be very hard to screen on the basis of ethnicity alone, because that doesn't always indicate anything. When the Israelis screen passengers (and El Al screens all its passengers), they do so not only on the basis of national origin, but on the basis of behavior, past travel, contacts in the country, etc.
Personally, I think the way to deal with it is to wipe out Islam or deal it such a death blow that these people don't even dare to attack innocent Western civilians again. We can't go on constantly restricting our lives, our behavior and our freedom for these people. We've got to strike them at some point and make it really undesirable for them to even think about interfering with us.
Flying internationally next month for the first time since 911. To the UK. Scary.
OMG, Guen, that's just awful I wasn't going to relate my horrid experience (fear) but since you have... I was late to the boarding gate to catch my connecting flight so I was unable to view the passengers until AFTER I boarded the plane. Several women in burkas accompanied by M.E. men. I calmed my fears by thinking they'd not be so damn obvious and were surely screened.
If these people are sharp enought to spot middle eastern terrorists, I hope these same heroes are savvy enough to spot the next Richard Reid or Jose Padilla.
IIRC, "asia" begins at the bosporos, the waterway from the Mediterranian to the Black Sea
Ham and cheese, washed down with a beer.
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