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."
That would be the proper and principled way for the airline to act, were the passengers' fears not so well-founded. People aren't going to bet their own lives and those of their children on the effectiveness of airline security, not when that security refuses to acknowledge the obvious source of the threat, and not when that security has failed so many times. Remember it was just 3 days ago that Catherine Mayo hopped a flight from Pakistan and made it all the way to the middle of the Atlantic ocean with a bag full of items explicitly banned from airplanes.
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."
Maybe, like most liberals, he's been living under a rock?
I don't think it was mishandled at all. And there will be, quite rightly, much more of it.
But at least your politically correct credentials are in order.
"It also raised fears that more travellers will take the law into their own hands - effectively conducting their own 'passenger profiles'."
Well governments won't do it, and the dirtbag politicans on both sides of the aisle here are too busy worrying about votes to do the right thing........so hey, power to the people!
"It also raised fears that more travellers will take the law into their own hands - effectively conducting their own 'passenger profiles'."
This is bad?
I guess Oakland being a hotbed for these types didn't help my fears...
...If I hadn't been so exhausted, I think I would have at least tried to find another place to sit....prevail upon the stewardess or something.
Jews don't eat pork either, and nobody wants to ban Jews from airplanes. However there is nothing in Judaism that would bar a Jew from kissing the hide of a pig, whereas that would still be a one-way ticket to Hell in Islam. Thus I propose the "Kiss-a-Pig" rule.
Take off your flight suit and put on your flame suit.
You're going to draw a lot of attention this evening.
A few years ago, I was waiting for a connecting flight in Atlanta, having just come back from Europe. In the boarding lounge - fortunately, waiting for a different flight - was a 50-ish man who looked Pakistani, a small child, and a huge woman wearing a burkha that covered everything, so that even her eyes were behind a sort of mesh screen. However, standing near her, I could have sworn that she was probably not Pakistani (very white skin on her wrists and hands) and probably not even a woman. Her only visible parts were her feet and her hands and wrists, and they sure didn't look like to me like they belonged to a woman.
It was very creepy. This was shortly after 9/11 and procedures weren't as well worked out for screening, so I am hoping now that they have some way of dealing with passengers who are flying totally concealed.
Oakland! OMG! Seriously, I think I would have gotten off that plane.
They are Asians. There is no continent called "the Middle East".
If this is so, then why the silence when the maniacs strike? Why is the first statement out of any of the groups claiming to represent the majority of Muslims (or Arabs, for that matter) always an appeal to the civil authorities to protect them from the much feared and anticipated but never manifest "backlash?"
I say "ENOUGH!" Silence equals CONSENT. Until the majority of Muslims living in the West ACT like they have a stake in OUR CIVILIZATION (working, making money and paying taxes ALONE are not enough) they can expect to be treated as if they pose a THREAT to OUR CIVILIZATION. At this moment, under the present protocols, people who regard oddly behaving and obviously Muslim men and women as potential threats to their lives and safety are within their rights to do so.
Sorry if this hurts Muslim feelings. Take it up with the overly devout neighbors down the street who sell those DVDs (you know the ones), or the "student" renting the spare bedroom who oddly keeps to himself, or the angry bunch at the "Islamic Centre." Until the majority of Muslims confront them, make life hard for them, TURN THEM IN TO THE AUTHORITIES, then assuming every Muslim is at the very least in AGREEMENT with the terrorists is completely rational. Deboarding a plane seems like the right, sensible, pragmatic thing to do under the circumstances.
Muslims in the West MUST stop sitting on their hands. Until they do, I'm going to wonder "Whose side are you on?"
"You in-flight meal will feature a choice of BACON, HAM, OR SAUSAGE..!"
Your post gave me chills. Seriously. I know I am naive, but whenever they're dressed in that garb, I think they're more closely scrutinized.
I was going to ask about just that. I have heard the phrase "flying while Asian." What's up with that? I for one have never confused a person of Asian descent with a young Middle Eastern male. If I was Asian, I would be flipping out right now.
I have my principles, and my conscience to live with. I call them as I see them. Assuming demonstrated screening, and Arabs with heavy clothes would be screened to death ethnic profiling or no, to abuse folks this way, and cater to mob fear, by rewarding it and punishing the innocent, just isn't right in my view. I don't consider this a close case. If I get heat, so be it. It has happened before, it will happen again. That is the public square in action. :)
Right, that would be unfair to the poor oppressed crapholes that we give $billions in aid to. Oh well, it was just an idea......
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